Firstly, the aim of this is to simply educate and voice the opinions of the students, particularly those affected by this topic.
A few weeks ago, as myself and my friends were walking in the school halls on a Tuesday afternoon, we passed the principal of our school, who asked one of my friends to take her small stud nose piercing out. She replied saying she would, but was then told to take it out right there, where she was standing. Our principal said it was against school rules.
In my school, situated in the southwest of Ireland, we, like the majority of the schools in the country, have a school uniform. This uniform is generally accepted by all students, with of course the occasional act of defiance. And by defiance, I mean the wearing of white socks.
My issue with the school dress code and the issue of many others is the “rule” or ban on piercings and hair dye.
In our school journal, there lies the Behaviour Code. Part 5 of this code is entitled ‘School Expectations/Dress and Appearance, in which lies the following:
“It is our expectation that all students will wear the official school uniform, without modification at all times. The wearing of the school uniform promotes respect for self and peers and serves to increase a sense of community, order and organisation.”
Following this are four points, describing the ‘dress and appearance’ the school wishes us to uphold.
- Be in full uniform
- Be neat and tidy
- Keep hair in a neat and clean condition
- Remember only one pair of stud earrings, one ring, and one bracelet.
I wish to understand why nose piercings and hair dye seem to be prohibited at our school. We already have a uniform in place which severely limits our self-expression, something that should be nurtured at this age of our lives. Hair dye and nose piercings are not specifically stated anywhere in our school’s dress code yet students face repercussions for doing something as fundamental as expressing themselves.
Regarding the above rules, is having dyed hair suddenly not neat or clean? Are blue highlights inherently ‘unclean’?
About two years ago when my friend dip-dyed the ends of her hair pink, she was asked if the dye was semi-permanent and was sent home to wash it out. The school doesn’t seem to mind or notice if a student dyes their hair a natural hair colour, but speaks out against any colour of the rainbow.
It was argued to me that banning nose piercings and hair dye is good practice when we’re older and in the professional world, but it is preposterous to tell a 14 year old student that they cannot dye their hair at all or get a piercing in any place which isn’t the lobes of their ears because they won’t get a good job.
No explanations are given by the school administration. It is questionable whether the school board is aware students are being stripped of the little self-expression they have.
It is also ludicrous to me that the administrators in our school seem to think someone with hair tips that are purple or someone with an embellishment on the side of their nose somehow contributes to distraction in class, poor test scores or even the failure of a class.
Is it a catholic thing? As a school with catholic ethos do you believe nose-pierced and dyed-hair people are less worthy in the eyes of God? Are they bad Catholics? This banning is senseless and ignorant.
As a Catholic school who hung up posters supporting our LGBT+ students, it is strange to uncover that they have not come to grips with people with nose piercings and dyed hair.
It doesn’t benefit the school in any way. In fact it could possibly make our school look less diverse, and as a school with 90% white students and 100% white staff, diversity is something we already struggle with.
I hope a change is made. It’s 2017, face the fact that not everyone will look the way you want them to look, for a better ‘school image’.
