Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry - Gleaner file photo
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Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry and Deputy Public Defender Victor Hemmings
The Office of the Public Defender has expressed concern about the case involving students who were barred from sitting end of year exams because of a hairstyle infringement.
The Education Ministry is probing the incident at the Wolmer's Boys' School.
Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry says the issue could have been handled differently.
"Let the young man get on with his school work and thereafter, the school can make its intervention, both with him and his parents or guardians. We don't believe that young people going in to do exams ought to be ruffled. Just let them write their exam and address the issues in an appropriate way and at the appropriate time," she suggested.
Deputy Public Defender Victor Hemmings said the hairstyle issue in schools highlights a form of prejudice that has manifested in various institutions across the country.
"A black man who has the quality hair that I do can never be accepted as being properly groomed with respect to the hair unless one of two conditions obtain: 'A' he cuts it off, or 'B' he wears what we call now the fashion locs. Otherwise, it's going to be the black pepper grains, the bongo head, the nappy head and that sort of nasty prejudice...a vestige of our colonial past which it doesn't seem as if we're in any hurry to debunk," he bemoaned.
He said the Ministry of Education should develop a policy on hairstyles.
Mr. Hemmings and Mrs Harrison Henry were speaking on Thursday on Radio Jamaica's Hotline programme with host Emily Shields.
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