Dreadlocked student readmitted after lawyer letter

The return to school yesterday by a grade one pupil of the St Mary’s Roman Catholic school, may have been prompted by the delivery of a lawyer’s letter to the school.

Lawyer Jomo Thomas confirmed to SEARCHLIGHT yesterday that a letter had been sent to the school last week asking, “that the child be returned to school because of the fundamental rights which would be violated by the child being out of school.”

In the letter, an ultimatum was given that if the child was not allowed to return to school within a certain time, the matter would be going to court, he said.

The lawyer noted that the time given to the school to do so, was a “very narrow window.”

Myccle Burke

News that the child would be allowed to return to school broke last Thursday evening.

“Clearly there is a constitutional right to freedom of expression, there is also the right not to be discriminated against. All of those are constitutional and fundamental rights and we just believe that the way in which the school went about this was improper,” Thomas said.

He also informed that the medical certificate, which confirmed that the child had severe eczema was supplied “shortly after” the pupil was told that she could not return to school three weeks ago.

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Myccle Burke said yesterday that no recommendations had, to his knowledge, been made to the school by the Ministry.

According to the mother of the six-year-old child, who spoke to SEARCHLIGHT in an earlier interview, her child was first barred from attending classes on January 7.

She stated that she had been directed to the school rule which states that Rastafarians are to cover their dreadlocks (the Rastafarian religion stipulates that dreadlocks must be covered). However, she noted that neither she nor her daughter were Rastafarians, and that her daughter could not cover her hair as it would get hot and flare up her eczema. She said that, to begin with, she had styled her daughter’s hair in dreadlocks to control her eczema.

The school had said, according to the mother, that the girl should cut or cover her hair, and could not return until she did so. Two Catholic priests had told her that if a medical certificate was provided the school would consider allowing the child to attend school.

Following this, there had been little in the way of information from any party in the matter, until last Thursday evening, when it was learnt that the girl would be allowed to return to school yesterday.