To wonder how a school could get this so wrong

[Hingeandbracket]

And not admit it.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/newsbeat-45521094
I am not quick to shout racist but this seems pretty clear cut.

Absolutely.
Couldn’t believe what I was reading.

Christ & in Hackney of all places

so School rules do n’t apply to this child

@Northernparent68, what exactly do you mean?

I don't know much about Afro hair, but could she not have put it in a ponytail? I do see plenty of black kids with one, or more often two bunches. According to the article, the school said it was blocking other people's view of the board, so I can see why it was causing a problem, and bunches seem a sensible (free) solution.

My daughter has lovely bum length blonde hair, which she would love to wear loose, but for practical reasons (predominantly the spreading of nits) she has to have it tied back. I don't really see how this is different.

The hair being afro is surely not the problem, its the fact that the girl was refusing to tie it back.

so School rules do n’t apply to this child
Not such obviously discriminatory ones, no.
There is absolutely no reason to uphold a pointless rule. Also the manner of enforcement was extremely unreasonable.
Why would a school behave in such a ridiculous way? Just because “rules are rules”?

According to the article, the school said it was blocking other people's view of the board,
As the student herself pointed out, by that token taller students should have been sent home until they had their height in check

I don’t think it’s discriminatory to say that hair of a certain length must be neatly tied back.

Obviously it would be discriminatory to ban ways of managing black hair, such as braids or cornrows. But I don’t think that’s the case here.

I thought the school was awful when I read that. As if it's a crime for the girl to wear her hair naturally.

I feel sorry for the school, £8,500 for any school/LA to cough up is a lot and could have been spent on other more well-meaning stuff like textbooks....
The school had rules and they apply to everyone

There’s tied back in a ponytail and then there’s forcing pupils to tie it back so tightly that it gives them a receding hairline as was happening to her.

I mean, I can loosely tie my hair in a ponytail to look neater but I don’t have Afro hair so it’s a lot easier.

I don't know much about Afro hair, but could she not have put it in a ponytail?

My dd has hair similar to the girl in the article, it takes about 30 mins to put her hair in a ponytail. Also, tying hair back (tightly has you have to do with that hair type) causes damage to the hair and scalp, often you'll notice the hair line recedes due to the damage.

I haven’t read the article, but surely the sensible response was to reorganise the class seating so the student/s behind her were tall enough to see the board?

Absolutely shocking. Poor girl. And very brave of her to speak about it like she has. Totally racist policy. If her hair’s blocking someone’s view of the board then do a new seating plan ffs. I despair.

I feel sorry for the school, £8,500 for any school/LA to cough up is a lot and could have been spent on other more well-meaning stuff like textbooks....
Fairly sure an insurer paid. She'd have settled for a sensible ruling and an apology but the school refused.
The school had rules and they apply to everyone
No matter how racist? OK.

Is it racist? bearing in mind most schools have strict rules on hair styles anyway?

I don't know much about Afro hair, but could she not have put it in a ponytail?
Heard her interviewed this morning - it's not a ten minute job and as a PP (with actual knowledge) explained it's damaging.

I just want to point out that even putting my dds hair into a ponytail cost money as she needs three products applied every time (and those products are not cheap).

The school had rules and they apply to everyone

No, they didn't apply to everyone. It applied specifically to those with afro hair. Hence the discrimination .

I wouldn't bother OP. The usual 'this isn't racist' brigade will come out in force.

It was clearly discriminatory. I feel very sorry for the girl and her parents. Afro hair is natural, it's not 'untidy' for goodness sake.

You can't just tie afro hair back in a ponytail. It damages the scalp and causes hair loss. So yeah, a racist rule.

Maybe schools should just be less controlling about appearances and focus on learning and behaviour instead?

I cringed when I read this. I mean, come on, it really doesn’t take much thinking to realise that it probably isn’t a great idea to essentially tell a black child that their natural hair is unacceptable to the school. Especially when there is a growing understanding that braids/cornrows/straightening really damages their hair. and the teacher trying and failing to tie back her should have really clicked on at that point how ridiculous they were being.

Wow. Poor girl. The rule should be long hair has to be tied back. I totally get the comment about products costing money and damaging hair though as it looks like she has type 4c - ie the tightest curls and the most fragile. There isn’t a straight answer to this really. However, I don’t think it’s really a big deal for a kid behind to move their head to one side to see in front or to ask about changing places.

In today’s society, we are supposed to be breaking down the barriers, not discriminating against someone, who has to spend hours every day caring for her hair.

The school could have sorted this easily, if they genuinely weren't being discriminatory, by changing their 'rule' to state all hair longer than x inches must be securely tied into xx, xy or xz styles or similar.

At that point, the type of hair ceases to matter, and all the children with hair longer than their ears would have had to plait it or ponytail or bun it or pigtail it.

Frankly, I wish that's what all schools would do!

BUT, this one didn't. They targeted this one child and her Afro directly - even in the specific wording of the policy - because, as she says 'my hair grows out, not down'.

That's down to her ethnicity, which means they were targeting a difference caused by that ethnicity and subjecting her to different rules than others because of it. That's pretty clear cut racial discrimination.