HomepageHowcomyoucomRaceandHistoryRootsWomenTrinicenter
Homepage
Rastafari Speaks Archive
Buy Books
ARCHIVE HOMEMESSAGE BOARDREASONING FORUMARTICLESNEWS WEBLOG

Read Only : Rastafari Speaks Reasoning Archives

Rastafari Speaks Archive 1

Re: Girl thrown out of school over dreadlocks

posted on a next board:

Louisiana school district relents, allows Rastafarian students' dreadlocks, caps

By Aarika Mack
The Freedom Forum Online

09.25.00

Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana ACLU, right, represented plaintiffs Georgiana Helaire, left, Jamison Helaire, second from left, Edgar Green, and in front Tosh and Avia Bruno in a recently settled suit against the Lafayette Parish public schools. Officials had banned the youngsters — members of the Rastafarian faith — from attending school until they conformed with the district's hair code.
A Louisiana school board and the parents of eight children kept out of school because of their dreadlocks and head coverings have reached a tentative agreement that will allow the children to exercise their Rastafarian beliefs while attending the Lafayette Parish public schools.

"Absurd, asinine, stupid," are a few words that the family's Breaux Bridge attorney, David Benoit, used to describe the dress code that has kept the children out of school since last April. Benoit, along with ACLU-affiliated attorneys Marjorie Esman and Eugene Thomas, had asked a federal court to declare the school district's restrictions on head coverings and hair length an unconstitutional infringement on the children's religious freedom and freedom of speech.

Rastafarians Georgiana Helaire, mother of seven of the children, and Edgar Green, father of the eighth, moved as a family to Lafayette from Oakland, Calif., at the end of the 1999-2000 school year. However, when the parents attempted to enroll the children — who range from first to ninth grades — in public schools, officials turned them away, citing the district's dress-code restrictions.

The family believes the dress code — which bans headwear and restricts "extreme hairstyles" — is an affront to Rastafarian religious requirements that adherents wear their long hair in dreadlocks. Rastafarians also customarily wear head coverings, called "crowns," when in public.

The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported earlier this month that Helaire and Green had made previous attempts at working the situation out amicably, but to no avail.

"If this were a Catholic child wanting to bring rosary beads to school, this never would have happened," Esman told The Times-Picayune. "If this were a Jewish child wanting to wear a yarmulke, one wonders what the School Board would have done."

"In light of the many unfortunate incidents that have happened in schools recently, many school officials have rushed to these sort of measures to prevent further misfortunes, but this is a clear case of the school and the superintendent going overboard," said Benoit. "The superintendent is trying to create a homogenous group of kids with this type of initiative."

Benoit said that the Sept. 20 agreement, when ratified by the full school board, should allow the children to keep their dreadlocks and coverings as long as the hair and coverings can be inspected.

"The family made some minor accommodations that they weren't happy about but that did not conflict with their religion," Benoit said. "The important thing is that they're back in school ..., and I'm optimistic that the remaining members of the school board will be reasonable."

"It's foolish to try to fight it," board member John Earl Guidry told the Associated Press. "The law says they have the right to wear it. They told us there's no chance we can win."

The AP also reported that board member Ed Sam said: "The bottom line is, those children need to be in school. We've kept them out of school long enough."

Benoit said he did not know when the school board would vote on the agreement. The school board's attorney did not return calls for comment.

Related

Dreadlocks lock student out of class
Officials at Whitefish High School in Montana say Kisteesha Lanegan can't return until she gets rid of her 'outlandish' hairstyle. 09.26.02

Messages In This Thread

Girl thrown out of school over dreadlocks *LINK*
Re: Girl thrown out of school over dreadlocks
Re: Girl thrown out of school over dreadlocks
All this Neo- Colonialism. Shame on them
Re: Girl thrown out of school over dreadlocks
Re: Girl thrown out of school over dreadlocks
Re: Girl thrown out of school over dreadlocks
Archbishop overrules nun on 'dreadlocks girl' *LINK*
Re: Archbishop overrules nun on 'dreadlocks girl'
Re: Archbishop overrules nun on 'dreadlocks girl'
Re: Archbishop overrules nun on 'dreadlocks girl'
Re: Archbishop overrules nun on 'dreadlocks girl' *LINK*


FAIR USE NOTICE:
This site may at times contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml


Copyright © 2003-2014 RastafariSpeaks.com & AfricaSpeaks.com