My son was told his hair style is too "urban" by his school. He is proud of his heritage and culture has grown his hair into a style that can be plaited, his dad has dreadlocks and my son wants the same style. Different ethnicity, cultures and religions have their own identity, Jewish boys have payot, sikhs have long hair in a top knot with a turban, transgender children can identify as a boy or girl and wear their hair accordingly so why is it a problem for a black child to have dreadlocks or plaits? There is no reason other than Head preference. Its discrimination!!

His grades are good so why will his hairstyle be a problem unless its due to a stereotype that the school want to inflict on my son.

This opened a can of worms for me and made me look into school rules and policies and actually how inclusive they are for BME children. Remember in the 1900s not many BME children were enrolled at school in this Country. 

School rules/policy state no skin fade, my sons hair grows quickly skin fade allows my son to need minimal hair cut in a term, a number 2 as the school states is adequate means I cut his hair every week its only the sides not his whole head it is costly, time consuming and inconvenient.  I think school rules/policies need to be revised and take into account the needs of BME children as currently they do not. I feel they are not inclusive and do not allow our children to be who they are comfortably. For example aside to hairstyles when some BME children go swimming they need extra time to cream their skin after being exposed to the water and chlorine, but they are rushed to get changed and back on the bus, this causes dry skin that will become tight and uncomfortable for the rest of the day and then they are told off for fidgeting in class. My son was told " he was being a pansy" when creaming his skin after swimming, this is offensive and completely inappropriate.  BME children have a different hair and skin type and this needs to be considered, some teachers may even need to be educated on cultural differences and backgrounds as they cannot be aware of how much their old fashioned discriminating comments are offensive and affect our children!

Many things are over looked and our children's self esteem,confidence,emotional well being and pride in who they are is being damaged these policies need to be changed and consideration needs to be taken that times have changed along with back grounds and cultures of the children that are now attending schools the policies and rules need to be inclusive and reflective of the children on role. School is a place where our children should flourish and learn to become respectable members of society but this uneducated approach is breaking confidence and discriminating them to have low opinions of themselves. This needs to stop if you agree or know someone who has been affected please sign the petition to make a change for our children the next generation. The more signatures we get the more chance of change please sign and share.