A UK academy (equivalent to a US charter school) sent home a student for non-compliance with its uniform rule. The school says she must wear the official skirt or trousers or stay home. She says this is a matter of religious freedom.
According to the report, the school has a uniform not a code which is significant. A uniform specifies "a" and "b" but not "c", while a dress code establishes boundaries and as long as you stay within the boundaries, you are fine. In this case, the uniform says two things : she must wear (1) either a specific skirt or specified trousers which she must get (b) from a specific supplier.
The student wants to wear something similar to the skirt, which is accordingly clearly not from the supplier specified. She wants a dress code at a school which has a uniform, aka she does not want to follow the rules. Incidentally, the father of the 12 year-old maintains that this is her decision and nothing to do with him.
Academies are optional or voluntary attendance so the student, or the family, has chosen this school over others. As a factor in this choice, she would have considered the school´s values, and its rules, and by agreeing to enrolment, she agrees to those values and rules. She claims that the rule changed and that she did not know. This may well be true, however when she was told of the "new" rule, she chose to flout it which she did twice : the skirt itself and the style/color/fabric which is assured by having a unique supplier.
Distressingly, the student claims this to be a religious issue which I find to be both disingenuous and troubling as she is clearly seeking a wider audience and thus support, and one must ask why.
She claims that her religious views mean that she needs a different skirt. However, the school has the trouser option which allows for some religious views, and already allows her to wear a hijab as shown in the photographs, suggesting that the rule is not anti-religion. Curiously, she did not apply to the school for a religious exemption; she chose to flaunt the rule and to go public instead.
Whether the uniform rule is reasonable is an important discussion, but not here relevant. I think that the school is right to exclude her. When one chooses a school, one accepts its rules and students and families cannot select only those which they want to follow. The student chose to break two rules which the school believes are important, and when advised of the breach, the student refused to comply thus a third breach. Furthermore, the student has not requested an exemption and continued with her refusal.
**Questions and comments below.**
Further Reading
http://teaching-abc.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-clash-in-values.html
http://teaching-abc.blogspot.com/2020/10/schools-send-parents-to-debt-collectors.html
No comments :
Post a Comment