Warning shot for offending hairstyle

Principal of Dunrobin Primary, Sacheel Grant-Henry, has walked back the contents of a warning letter issued last Wednesday to a grade five student for an offending hairstyle, saying the threat was not meant to bar him from school but to be a note of caution for his parents to take action.

The principal, while admitting that she had issued the child with a letter, said the student was cited for wearing his hair high in a rolled fashion – accentuated with a sponge – but that his hair had already been cut when he returned to school on Friday.

Attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, who was retained by the student’s mother, told The Gleaner last week that the child was sent home on Wednesday with a letter advising that he should not return until the matter had been addressed.

The letter, a copy of which The Gleaner has seen, said that the child’s hairstyle was “inappropriate for school”.

Grant-Henry further pointed out in the letter that the boy’s dismissal would be a final action after having many conversations with the child, both in groups and individually.

But the principal, when contacted on Monday, said she would have been crazy to have sent home the boy.

“I wouldn’t have forced a child … worse I know the learning loss has been so great. No child can leave here, much less for a child to commit an infraction and you put a child through the gate. That is dangerous,” said Grant-Henry, who is in her mid-30s and has been a principal since 2014.

Based on a photograph of the child taken a day after he was reportedly sent home, the student sported what appeared to be a faded, low-cut hairstyle that was said to be the alleged hair breach.

However, the principal said that was a post-haircut photo.

Grooming guidelines – especially about hair – have been a source of debate in Jamaican schools for decades, with contending views about the right of administrators to set rules in the face of opposition on the grounds of self-expression and pride.

That clash of ideologies came to a head in 2020 in a Supreme Court ruling that Kensington Primary School did not breach a couple’s child’s constitutional rights when it reportedly denied her access in 2018.

That matter is being appealed.

In the Dunrobin case, the child, according to Samuels, returned to school on Friday morning on his instructions and a letter left for the principal advising her that her action was in breach of the education ministry’s directive that students not be turned away over perceived hairstyle infringements.

According to Samuels, the principal had refused to accept the letter.

Grant-Henry, prior to issuing the child with the original letter, said she had phoned the mother nine days ago over the boy’s persistent lateness and also raised issues with his hair.

The principal said she spoke to the school population about the dress code on April 6 and summoned nine students, including girls wearing braids, to her office and asked them for their parents’ contacts.

The boy with the offending hairstyle was also sent to her office for sanctions, the principal said.

Grant-Henry said that the caution in the letters issued to all the students – that they would not return to school – was telegraphed for parental intervention.

“I am not a leader who leads by emotions. One of the things that I encourage all my middle managers to do – even budding leaders – is if you lead by emotions, you get into trouble. You have to lead based on logic, so a small faded hairstyle would not have caused such an issue,” she said.

Maureen Dwyer, acting permanent secretary in the education ministry, declined comment on Monday, saying she was just learning of the incident by way of the media.

However, the principal said she was contacted by an education officer and will be dispatching a report to the ministry.

Chairman of the Dunrobin Primary board, Barrington Hibbert, said an investigation has been launched into the incident.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com