Anti-locs school rules vestige of colonial hate
IN A modern democratic society where our constitutional rights safeguard freedom of expression, freedom against discrimination, and freedom of religion, the reason for wearing locs is as irrelevant as the colour of one’s eyes.
Locs have become more than religion. It is highly improper and unreasonable for any child, parent, or any Jamaican for that matter, to have to declare that they are Rastafari to be ‘allowed’ to receive an education at a public school. Asking someone to declare their religion publicly to be able to derive an education, or any social benefit, erodes the privacy of adopting a religion of one’s choosing and presents a plethora of social and constitutional issues.
Across the world, children who wear locs have won constitutional battles against oppressive schools that have sought to deny them attendance on the basis on discriminatory anti-locs rules or policy. In Jamaica, it is our school boards that are empowered to make rules under the Education Act, in consultation with staff and students.
In 2018, however, the ministry developed a Student Dress and Grooming Policy that, at its core, is rights-based, and was intended to safeguard against non-discriminatory treatment of our students. The policy recognises that where there are schools with rules which seek to prevent students with certain hairstyles, such as locs, from admission, that exceptions must be made. But in seeking to cure the prejudice, the policy makes an exception for ‘non-conformity’ by ‘allowing’ children to be admitted to school, provided they wear their hair in a particular manner for health reasons, and, in the case of locs, for religious reasons. The policy, therefore, restricts itself by failing to expressly state that children with locs, irrespective of religious reasons, must not be prevented from attending school and getting an education.
I recognise that not all our educators or boards adopt a discriminatory approach to children who wear locs, and certainly not all of them would dare ask a child or parent if that child is Rastafarian before he/she is allowed into school. These boards and educators must be lauded for their non-discrimination and inclusiveness in recognising that education is the right for all our children.
DEVOID OF LOGIC
But there are boards and educators that do discriminate. They use every loophole or ambiguity they can under the Education Act and the regulations to make rules that are devoid of logic, regressive, and downright oppressive.
Is it that these boards and educators would wish for our children to wear a sigil identifying themselves as Rastafarian to be allowed an education? Such a system would be comparable to the Nazi regime of 1930s Germany, where Jews were asked to brand themselves by wearing the Star of David for all to see them, know them, and exact prejudice against them.
Fortunately, the said act and regulations are presently being amended.
As a nation, we cannot allow those educators and boards with prejudices steeped in a history of colonial hate and anti-blackness to make rules that single out, embarrass, discriminate, or are otherwise oppressive against our children who wear locs. There is nothing unclean or unhygienic about locs.
Locs do not facilitate the spread of lice, nor do they disturb the educational process. In our modern, democratic Jamaica, locs are more than religion. They are a symbol of our cultural heritage; of our identity and race as a Jamaican people; and of our expression of our beautiful black hair in its natural state devoid of Eurocentric virtues of style, cleanliness, and appropriateness.
All boards and educators should adhere to the overarching non-discriminatory policy of the Government, which respects the rights of all Jamaicans. It is time for all stakeholders across the educational and cultural sectors to support and agree to a revised dress and grooming policy for our children that expressly states that “no child should be denied access to an education on the basis of that child wearing locs.” Full stop.