Hair-raising

THE ROBUST debate over the case of a child who has not been allowed to wear a natural hairstyle in school underlines how deeply this matter resonates with the population. It’s unfortunate an impasse over something as simple as a child’s hairstyle has deteriorated into a situation in which legal action is on the horizon. We urge all the parties involved to put the interest of the child first, to end this tension by adopting more nuanced and inclusive approaches to the application of school rules.

No child should be subject to the stress of suddenly being at the centre of a whirlwind of controversy. That is precisely where a 15-year-old Princes Town girl has ended up thanks, in part, to a failure of school officials to appreciate the nuances involved when it comes to hair in our society and to adopt a conciliatory approach. Parents have a duty to uphold school rules, yes. But no principal has any authority to place their hand in a child’s hair gratuitously, as was reported last week.

It lies ill in the mouths of school officials to preach fidelity to a code of student conduct while ignoring the rights of the child. Though rules apply equally to all students, it is wrong-headed to ignore the fact that in certain matters it can never be one size fits all. Something as varied and subjective as hair requires the adoption of discretion.

There has been too much contention on this matter and the evidence is gleaned by how it has affected the child involved. According to the child’s mother, after the school’s principal reportedly placed her hand in her daughter’s hair, she came home crying. “I could see the frustration in her eyes, it has been almost two years,” said the mother. “She has grown weary. She is fed up.”

There is a difference between being firm and being callous. We suggest both sides come together to work out an amicable solution without taking the matter to court.

At the heart of this affair is the unquestionable fact that no matter how far we have come as a post-colonial, multi-cultural society, there remain raw and sensitive wounds that are yet to be fully cauterised. Hair and specifically black hair is a live issue that provokes strong emotions because of how it is tied to the history of slavery and denigration, our warped notions of beauty, our backward ideas of class, our inability to move beyond archaic approaches. Where is our forward-thinking?

Hair is but one example. Others include: the strange dress codes in effect in government buildings, edicts which prevent the unmarried from bringing guests to official events, the lingering presence of colonial-era laws on our statutes, and even some of our rituals of governance. Those are the real hair-raising issues we should be addressing, not this poor child’s head.