{"id":542,"date":"2020-08-19T16:13:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T16:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=542"},"modified":"2020-08-19T16:16:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T16:16:13","slug":"schools-ban-on-dreadlocks-for-hygiene-reasons-states-jamaican-supreme-court-upholds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/schools-ban-on-dreadlocks-for-hygiene-reasons-states-jamaican-supreme-court-upholds\/","title":{"rendered":"School\u2019s Ban On Dreadlocks For \u2018Hygiene\u2019 Reasons States Jamaican Supreme Court Upholds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The parents of the student whose dreadlocks sparked the case vowed not to cut her hair.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highest court in all of Jamaica ruled on Friday in favor of a school that demanded a student cut her dreadlocks over \u201chygiene\u201d reasons in order to attend classes. The student\u2019s parents vowed not to cut their daughter\u2019s hair and were stunned by the ruling that upholds the kind of systemic racism the world has been protesting in recent months and also condemns a hairstyle readily associated with the Caribbean island nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The student, who is now 7-years-old, first had the ban imposed on her in 2018 when Kensington Primary School in the town of Portmore told her \u201cshe must cut her dreadlocks for \u2018hygiene\u2019 reasons,\u201d according to the Washington Post<\/a>. Following a temporary injunction granted by the Supreme Court, allowing the young girl to continue attending the prestigious school (where her mother said she\u2019s thrived), the same court ruled on Friday that Kensington Primary was well within its rights to institute the ban on dreadlocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The student\u2019s mother didn\u2019t hide her anger at the ruling and suggested the social guidelines for the coronavirus pandemic might actually work in her favor in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will not be cutting her hair! That was never an option on the table,\u201d Sherine Virgo told the Jamaica Gleaner<\/a> on Friday. \u201cAs it is right now, it seems that everything is going the homeschool direction anyways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virgo, who also sports dreadlocks, said if the court and school expect her daughter to switch to a more European-friendly hairstyle, they are surely mistaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will not be putting any creamy crack in her hair. Her hair will continue to stay the same,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The father of the student \u2014 who has remained anonymous because of her young age \u2014 cited what he described as a lost \u201copportunity\u201d for Jamaica to set a legal precedent for a country whose citizens are no strangers to dreadlocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA child was refused because of her Black hair, you know? It\u2019s so weird that right now in the current climate of the world, in 2020, we are having protests, and Black people are fed up,\u201d Dale Virgo said. \u201cThis is an opportunity the Jamaican government and the legal system had to right these wrongs and lead the world and make a change. But they have decided to keep the same system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued: \u201cI expected that Jamaica would lead the charge against somewhat systemic racism as it relates to our hair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of Jamaica and dreadlocks are seemingly intertwined despite just 2 percent of its population identifying as Rastafarians \u2014 followers of the religion that dictates its adherents must grow their hair into dreadlocks as part of the Nazarite Vow<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dreadlocks hairstyle first appeared in Jamaica during post emancipation,\u201d according to Jamaica.com<\/a>. \u201cIt was a means of defiance for ex-slaves to rebel against Euro-centrism that was forced on them. The hairstyle was originally referred to as a \u201cdreadful\u201d hairstyle by the Euro centric Jamaican society. It later evolved to the term now used: Dreadlocks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bans on dreadlocks may be new to Jamaica, but not so in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only a few months ago when DeAndre Arnold<\/strong> was suspended by his high school in Texas<\/a> and told he couldn\u2019t attend his graduation ceremony unless he adhered to the school district\u2019s dress code by cutting his dreadlocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, high schooler Andrew Johnson <\/strong>went viral when he was forced to cut his dreadlocks for a wrestling match and the whole incident was caught on video. The clip caused a wave of backlash<\/a> and further discussion on institutions\u2019 anti-Black hair policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of those instances followed the 2016 ruling by a federal appeals court<\/a> that banning an employee from wearing dreadlocks is not racial discrimination. The case was sparked after Chastity Jones<\/strong>, a Black woman in Alabama, refused to cut off her dreadlocks as a condition of employment with an insurance company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in 2016, a 13-year-old student was removed from his private school because of his dreadlocks<\/a>. In that case, the principal said it was the length f the hair that violated the school\u2019s dress code, not the boy\u2019s actual hairstyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The parents of the student whose dreadlocks sparked the case vowed not to cut her hair. The highest court in all of Jamaica ruled on Friday in favor of a school that demanded a student cut her dreadlocks over \u201chygiene\u201d reasons in order to attend classes. The student\u2019s parents vowed not to cut their daughter\u2019s Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56,58,1],"tags":[83,86,80,82,81,87,84],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}