Students arriving at the Thomas Saunders Secondary School yesterday, September 5 at the start of the new school year were subjected to checks by members of the school’s teaching staff.

Student fixing her hair outside the temporary compound of the Thomas Saunders Secondary School at Arnos Vale. (Photos by Robertson S. Henry)

These teachers were apparently ensuring that the school’s established dress code, inclusive of hair and uniform, were being adhered to.

Students of the school are now being housed in buildings on the tarmac of the decommissioned E.T Joshua Airport which previously housed students of the St Vincent Grammar School in order to facilitate extensive repairs to their building at Richmond Hill.

Female students whose hair fell below their shoulders were asked to pin their hair up; while male students whose hair was deemed to be uncombed, were asked to comb their hair.

One parent whose child is a first year student at the school and observed what was taking place, remarked that, “It is time that the schools make sure children are properly dressed to enter the school.”

Another parent chipped in with ,”Too many times children leave home dressed one way and arrive at school dressed in a different way, so what the school is doing I am happy with.”

A male student upon entering the compound was told by a teacher that he would not be allowed to enter the school’s premises after yesterday’s first day because his trousers were too tight. His mother, who had accompanied him, said that she only realized how tight the pants was when her son put it on that morning.

No school official was prepared to go on record to give an explanation, but one told SEARCHLIGHT that “each student upon signing up to be a student at the school is issued a copy of the school’s rule book. This rule book states the school’s regulations on everything, so the students ought to know. If they do not, then they should go and read the rule book and be up to date with the school’s rules and regulations.”