KINGSTON, Jamaica, Jul 16, CMC – The Court of Appeal says the Kensington Primary School in St Catherine, south east of here, breached the constitutional rights of a female student in 2018 when it denied her access after she failed ti trim her dreadlocks hair.
“It is declared that the policy of the board of management of Kensington Primary on the wearing of dreadlocks hairstyle has breached the following rights as they related to ZV rights,” said outgoing president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Patrick Brooks.
In the decision delivered on Monday, the Court of Appeal noted that the child’s right to freedom of expression and the right to equitable treatment by a public authority in the exercise off any function were violated.
The decision overturned in part a 2020 decision of the Supreme Court that the school’s policy did not breach the child’s constitutional rights.
Kensington Primary School had justified its position on the basis that it found that the hairstyle harboured lice and ‘junjo’ (mould) infestation and threatened to withdraw the child’s admission if the then five-year-old student’s hairstyle remained.
But the student’s parents, Dale and Sherine Virgo, who refused to cut their daughter’s hair, instead filed a lawsuit against the school’s board, the education ministry, and the attorney general, arguing that the child’s constitutional rights had been breached.
But the court ruled that Kensington Primary School did not breach the child’s constitutional rights when it denied her access and that her father, who was listed as the first claimant, had no right or capacity to bring the claim, a decision which the Appeal Court upheld.
The claimants, however, had sought a number of orders from the court, including a declaration that the contentious grooming policy excluding dreadlocks was unconstitutional and breached the claimants’ rights to freedom of expression, equality before the law, freedom from discrimination on the grounds of race, place of origin, social class, colour, religion or political opinions, among other reasons.
But the Court of Appeal noted that the matter was not about religious rights and freedoms, but self-expression.
Attorney Isat Buchanan, who had represented the Virgos in the lower court and was the instructing counsel in the Appeal case, said the case is a victory for Jamaica.
“I am very pleased with the outcome of the recognition of human rights in particular freedom of expression and equitable treatment as it relates to dreadlocks, Rasta, and Afro identity in modern Jamaica.
“As a member of the Rastafarian community and the son of Big Youth, I can now say it is a happy day for Jamaicans, especially before Independence not long from now,” Buchanan said.
CMC/af/ir/2024