Latest News:Latest News - May 2011
Legal challenge over teenager's right to wear cornrows
This week, a specialist education lawyer from MG Law is in court, fighting the corner of a 13 year old boy who was excluded from school for wearing 'cornrows'.
The boy who can only be known as 'G' suffered a blow to his self esteem after being excluded from St Gregory's Catholic Science College in North London on his very first day.
The school has a strict uniform and hair policy which prohibits boys from adopting the popular style of braiding the hair along the scalp.
'G' who is of African-Caribbean origin has been wearing his hair in cornrows since a very young age and now the case has made it to the High Court in London. This important test case which Mr Justice Collins is being asked to consider concerns the lawfulness of a school uniform and appearance policy.
If G's application is successful it will recognise that the law preventing race discrimination also protects those ethnic groups, such as the African Caribbean community, which are partly defined by non religious cultural practices. For G, this concerns wearing his hair in cornrows and not cutting it.
G's solicitor, Angela Jackman from MG Law, said: "We are confident that St Gregory's Catholic Science College operates a policy which does not fully comply with current equalities legislation. We believe it discriminates against boys of African heritage by disregarding a widely recognised cultural practice.
"In this case the school failed to operate its policy flexibly and failed to accept that it should have considered making an exception for G based on the fact he considers the wearing of his cornrows is fundamental to his ethnic identify. The school also failed to pay due regard to current government guidance on this issue which recognises that banning cornrows for boys can result in indirect discrimination unless there is justification, as cornrows are more likely to be adopted by specific racial groups."
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© Maxwell Gillott 2008
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