Hair Coloring

Girl barred from school in hair dye row

Published: Tuesday, 27 March 2007 07:07:50
E-mail this article | Print this page

A 14-year-old girl was excluded from school because she dyed her hair BLACK.

Nicola Flynn was temporarily excluded from St Edmund Arrowsmith High School at Ashton after going from blond to cosmic blue(dark black).

Step-dad Paul Dewhurst is furious and is refusing to back down after governors upheld the school's decision at a recent meeting.

The 31-year-old from Abram said: "It's ridiculous and ludicrous. She changed her hair colour from dark brown to blond in September and nothing was said.

"Now they have a problem. What's wrong with black hair?

"I can't understand why they are picking on my daughter. They say she can't go back until she changes her hair to her original colour because this is an 'extreme change' but this is closer to that than when she went blonde.

"She feels victimized. It's a point of principle she likes her hair the way it is.

Nicola, who has now not been to school for five weeks, is missing out on vital class time studying for her SATs said: "I feel like they are picking on me because I've dyed my hair. I've never been in trouble in the past and I'm missing my mates and work."

But the school, which was at at the centre of another hair scandal earlier this year, will not back down and Nicola has been temporarily excluded until Easter.

Deputy head at the Ashton school, Paul Eyes, said: "School dress policy says that extreme cut or colour will not be allowed. That's a decision made by the school and backed by the governors.

"If the hair is deemed extreme we ask parents to work with us and 99.9 per cent of the time that works.

"Children come to school to be educated and they all have a dress policy that most pupils and parents respect."

Earlier this year Julie Tudor was incensed when her 13-year-old daughter, Stephanie, a St Edmund Arrowsmith pupil, was told she would be excluded for wearing her hair in tight plaits - despite black students sporting the same hairdo.

The school ruled that her pink beads were an "extreme hairstyle" banned under its code of conduct, and forced her to spend breaktimes indoors away from her pals.

But teachers have taken no action against classmates with the same style who are from an Afro-Caribbean background.

Source: wigantoday.net