Court of Appeal overturns decision in schoolboy ‘haircut’ case
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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| Anthony Wiltshire, former principal of the Sandy Point Primary School |
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts- OFFICIALS within the Ministry of Education declared on Tuesday (June 17th) that they were “quite satisfied with the ruling of the Court of Appeal” which overturned a previous ruling stating that it was “discriminatory and unconstitutional” for schools to require male students to have their hair cut short.
The incident leading to the court case took place in 2006 when Kaleel Jones, who was a nine-year-old student of the Sandy Point Primary School at the time, was suspended and told he had to cut his pony-tailed hair shorter to meet the guidelines of the school’s dress code.
Jones’ parents refused to cut their son’s hair and took the case to court. They eventually won a decision from High Court Judge Davidson Baptiste, which stated that it was discriminatory for a school to require a boy to cut his hair short when a girl could wear her hair long.
According to a release from the Ministry of Education, the Court of Appeal heard the case again on March 13th of this year and decided that Anthony Wiltshire, who was acting principal of the Sandy Point Primary School at the time of the incident, “acted lawfully in insisting on compliance with the school rule, and that his actions did not amount to an unlawful suspension of the child.” ~~Adz:Right~~
SKNVibes.com spoke with Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Osmond Petty, and he stated that the Court of Appeal decision “comes as no surprise to the ministry,” as no wrong had been done in enforcing the rules that are in place.
“We are pleased with the ruling. It will set a precedent in the sense that schools should now feel more comfortable in enforcing the rules,” said Petty.
Jones’ parents stated that they did not wish to talk about the issue other than to express their dissatisfaction with the ruling and that they would be seeking consultation with a lawyer to discuss any future actions in the case.
“When it was the other way around you didn’t hear anything about it,” said Gregory Jones, the boy’s father, as he commented on the Ministry of Education’s pursuit of media coverage regarding the successful appeal.
According to reports, Jones now attends a private school in Basseterre and continues to wear his hair long.
