Independent Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye says that according the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Trinity College violated every one of the four fundamental principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, when 23 secondary school boys from Trinity College were separated from their classmates at their graduation ceremony because their hairstyles were deemed to be in breach of school rules. The incident initiated widespread national discussion with polarised views being expressed. The Ministry of Education subsequently issues an initial guideline document to be initiated this coming September.
Thompson-Ahye delivered the feature address at the Mayaro Past Pupils Association Secondary Entrance Assessment awards function on Saturday said: “Teachers must respect children and recognise that children, too, are entitled to their human dignity. Every teacher should know the Convention on the Rights of the Child. If that were so, the incident at Trinity College would not have occurred,”.
She said the principles which were violated were 1] non-discrimination, 2] the best interests of the child, 3] the right to life and 4] survival and development and the right to be heard-which is the right to express opinions and to have them taken into account in any matter or procedure affecting the child. She also said that the school’s policy breached other articles, such as the right of the child to preserve identity and freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Thompson-Ahye underscored, that in October last year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission of Great Britain issued a guidance policy to prevent hair discrimination. She quoted from an article on its website, titled “Schools in Great Britain warned not to ban minority pupils’ hairstyles”, in which schools were told “not to penalise or exclude pupils for wearing their hair in natural afro styles, as well as braids, cornrows and plaits”.