A school in Gisborne has been called "racist" after saying they are “running a blitz” on “extravagant and unusual haircuts” such as dreadlocks and braids.
The rules and wording of the rules received flack online for being ignorant and unnecessary.
Tina Ngata shared the statement made by Gisborne Boys High School on Twitter, saying that it’s “straight racist” for the school to discriminate against dreadlocks and braids.
Replies were just as annoyed as Ngata was, with one saying there is “so much wrong with this”.
“I thought the struggle to get kids educated during all the stop-start disruptions of covid would have been enough to worry about,” said another.
Gisborne Boys say that the haircut rules are made because they believe “there is a correlation between uniform and the culture and environment” of the school - this also left some Twitter users scratching their heads.
One called the idea that a student's hair could affect a school's culture "crazy", saying that "education should be the focus."
“And where exactly is the evidence of a correlation???” asked one confused Twitter user.
This isn’t the first time a school has copped it for weird/strict haircut rules. Back in 2014, Luca Battison lived every school kid's dream by beating his school, St John’s College in Hastings, in court after they suspended him for not cutting his long locks.
We don’t see how a haircut can affect a student’s ability to learn one way or the other, not to mention the cultural and historical value that hairstyles like this hold.
