THE decision of some schools to lock out students for haircuts and uniforms which are deemed inappropriate has received mixed responses from children who participated in a Jamaica Observer/Rise Life Management street reasoning in Parade Gardens, central Kingston, last Thursday.

Twelve-year-old Nashawna Smiekle, who attends St Andrew High School for Girls, argued that hairstyles do not impact a student’s learning ability.

“A no hair a go school fi learn, a the pickney dem a go school fi learn; what happen ’bout dem hair? If it want to mad up, if it want to long to the floor, what that have fi do with what them take in when dem go school? Yuh can still groom yuhself, go school and don’t take in no book,” Smiekle argued.

At the same time 12-year-old Sumoy Hunt, a Convent of Mercy Academy “Alpha” student, said there should be other forms of punishment than a lockout for students who breach the dress code.

“Locking out children from learning does not help the situation; there are other punishments like detentions. If you lock them out, how will they learn?” questioned Hunt.

Thirteen-year-old Vauxhall High School student Tevin Cowans, who also disagreed with the measure, said, “Mi no think so. When mi trim my hair short mi can still learn, and if it is a bit higher mi will still learn.”

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Darian Tomlinson who attends Calabar High School said, “My teacher told me that it is not something good to come to school with high hair and tight pants because school is equipping you for the outside world. Schools are grooming you to show you that when you reach [outside in the world of work] you follow rules and regulations and you don’t get kicked out of jobs. [However,] you can’t restrict them from education because of their hair and pants. There must be standards but they shouldn’t be locked out.”

Others, though, held the opposite view.

Twelve-year-old Alicia Spalding, who attends Vauxhall High School, said that students should be locked out for ignoring the school rules.

“You can do it, but you have to know how you are going to do it. Your hair can be a certain limit but you should not go overboard. I think boys can wear the small earrings [knobs] and boys shouldn’t wear their uniforms big,” she said.

Fifteen-year-old student at Dunoon Technical High School Jenele Lawrence added, “I think they should lock them out because they are the face of the school.”

On Sunday, acting chief education officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr Kasan Troupe urged students to not break school rules.

“Don’t go to school and challenge your teachers. Don’t be disrespectful, don’t wear hairstyles that are not appropriate, don’t break the rules. The rules are there to guide us and yes, you may not agree and yes, some of them may outlive their time, but there is a way to deal with that. We have channels in place to look [at] and review rules and to change them to fit the time,” Troupe said at the Child Month church service at the Eastwood Park Road New Testament Church of God.

Grooming continues to be a controversial issue in schools and has led to several calls for policies to be revamped.

Last Tuesday morning, a few Kingston College students were reportedly prohibited from entering the school compound as they were deemed not properly groomed.

Students were reportedly told that the length of their hair was not fit for school and were advised by the principal and dean of discipline to return home.

However, in a note sent out to the school’s stakeholders, Principal Dave Myrie said that none of the students was locked out of the school which, since the resumption of face-to-face classes, has spent a significant amount of time “dealing with the issue of deportment and overall grooming”.

Myrie explained that when he arrived at school that morning there were a few boys near to the admin area who, the dean had advised, were in violation of the rules and regulations as outlined in the student handbook.

The dean, Myrie said, had told them to go and get themselves properly groomed and return to school.

“He advised that a number of boys had already corrected themselves and returned to classes; also some parents had come and picked up their son and had got them corrected and returned to school,” Myrie stated.

He said that the guidance counsellor also offered his barbering services and some boys went to him to have their hair properly groomed. “However, there were still a number of boys who refused to comply and were standing in the school yard and out at the gate. Some of these boys were wearing hats,” Myrie said.

He said that “about 9:30/10:00 am I asked the dean to ask all the boys who were still in the vicinity of the admin building to assemble in the chapel. I, along with the dean and vice-principal ,met with them. We had a very frank and respectful discussion about the situation. Many of the students indicated that the school had been very lenient over the year but wanted an extension of the leniency to be extended. Others spoke to the rules needing change but still indicated that some things still need to be unacceptable. These discussions went on for about an hour. At the end of the discussion asked them that if the dean extended leniency today would they conform by the following day. Ninety per cent of them said ‘Yes’. I then advised the dean to review all students present and advise me of the decision concerning each.

“He later advised me that all boys were reviewed and sent back to classes on the basis that they agreed to have their grooming sorted out by the following day,” the principal said.