Lawyers suggest clearer dress code policies for schools
Two lawyers are of the view that more feasible policies for school dress codes and grooming would eliminate the threat of any potential legal issues aimed at institutions of learning.
The perspectives of attorneys-at-law Gavin Goffe and Isat Buchanan follow the school dress code issue which was reignited at the Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland, western Jamaica, last week.
According to Goffe, there should be alternative means of enforcing dress codes in school without putting children at risk and causing them to miss out on their classes.
Further, he suggested that more decisions should be made in line with the Education Act.
“We need to also look carefully at what the education regulations says. It starts under the Education Act that is. Under the education regulations there is a process that needs to be followed if you wish to suspend a student from school because of conduct or behaviour — suspension for misconduct which would include violating the dress code. That process involves a hearing, which the student, as well as their parent, is entitled to have. That hearing would be a useful forum to determine whether or not the students’ mode of dress is, in fact, in violation of the dress code,” he told the Jamaica observer.
“When you look at those provisions together, the process that needs to be followed before you suspend somebody and the circumstances in which you can exclude a student from school, I think the law is clearly pointing in the direction now where incidents, such as this one, [are to be] handled in a much different way,” he added.
Further, Goffe mentioned that the idea of turning away students puts the school at a liability risk as students could be exposed to danger on the streets.
“When you send your child to school you are expecting that they are going to be let in and that they will have the protection of the school until it’s time to come back home.
“That creates a very dangerous situation for students who are on the outside, in terms of the liability they could have if anything were to happen to these children, and so, on many different legal grounds, I think the way in which this issue was handled seems to be inconsistent with our law and with just simple principles of common sense and the duty of care which schools owe to students and their parents,” said Goffe.
Sharing a similar view, Buchanan told the Sunday observer that access to school is paramount, and there must be consultation as well as the development of policies that all schools will follow.
“Rules are rules and you must follow the rules, except that if the rules don’t make sense then nothing will work — that’s why Jamaica is so backward. We don’t even know what we are regulating, and the only way to free us of this mental slavery and all of that is through education. So here we are depriving the next generation from identity and education,” he said.
“I’m not suggesting that girls must show up in extremely short dresses and boys must be in tight pants — that’s definitely bad grooming and we must come to a consensus as a nation and now persons who are teachers and administrators,” he said.
Buchanan noted that suspensions should only be conducted for certain circumstances.
“Going to the board you can’t just remove a child like that, so you’re in breach of the Education Act. The same Act that says if you don’t allow your child to be enrolled in school and the child is not coming to school, you can go to prison and you can be fined. The onus is on the parent for the child to be enrolled in a school so you can’t send them home to the parents because of pants – there is no justification,” he explained.
Last Monday there was much disturbance at Godfrey Stewart High School after students were denied entry to classes due to breaches of the dress code. Although parents and students protested, the school stuck to its view that skirts that are no more than five inches above the ankle protect young girls from being molested and boys’ trousers must not be less than 16 inches in diameter.
The school dress issue reignited much concern and influenced conflicting views from Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams and state minister in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Alando Terrelonge.