School’s hair rule discriminated

The High Court is due to make a ruling later on the legality of a school’s ban of the cornrows hairstyle.

A former pupil took St Gregory’s Catholic Science College in Harrow, north London, to court after it banned him for wearing braids.

At a two-day hearing in May, the school insisted its uniform and hair policy plays a “critical role” in tackling gang culture.

The boy’s family claim the style is of importance to his cultural identity.

He was refused entry to St Gregory’s as an 11-year-old because he wears the popular African-Caribbean style with hair braided close along the scalp.

The boy, identified in court as G, but who cannot be named for legal reasons, was banned on the first day at St Gregory’s in September 2009 and forced to attend another school.

The school was described in court as “a highly successful, hugely oversubscribed” voluntary-aided Catholic school which had recently achieved excellent academic results, with black African and African-Caribbean pupils performing well.

Headteacher Andrew Prindiville defended the school’s decision to adopt “a traditional schoolboy haircut or a ‘short back and sides’.”

The court heard the school was serving an area where there was gun and knife crime, much of it gang related, and haircuts were often “badges” of gang culture.

To allow cornrows, which were not necessarily gang-related, would lead to huge pressure to allow other styles which might be related.

The headteacher said in a court statement the school’s policy on uniform and hair “plays a critical role in ensuring that the culture associated with gangs of boys in particular – eg haircuts, bandanas, jewellery, hats, hoodies, etc – has no place in our school”.

The “pop culture” associated with gangs was also not part of the school’s Catholic ethos, he said.

David Wolfe, representing the family, said the school’s hair policy was so inflexible that it breached race discrimination laws.

He argued it also violated sex discrimination legislation as black African and African Caribbean girls were allowed braids.

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