A private school in Midrand has closed its doors after a confrontation over a learner’s hair.
The video – apparently taken on Monday – shows the parents of a thirteen-year-old girl at Crowthorne Christian Academy arguing with the school principal, Tanya Booysen, and her husband over the girl’s dreadlocks. She had been instructed to leave the school for being in violation of the school’s code of conduct, which forbids hair extensions. However, the parents maintain that dreadlocks are not extensions, but the girl’s natural hair.
At one point in the video, Ms Booysen’s husband physically removes the girl from a classroom. The parents are visibly upset throughout the recording, questioning the religious sincerity of the principal and her husband and accusing them of racism.
The principal’s husband was subsequently arrested for assault and has been released on bail.
It has also emerged that the school was not a registered educational institution.
Hairstyle regulations and the supposed Eurocentric assumptions they embody have been a recurrent controversy. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union said in a statement: ‘It is quite alarming that nearly 30 years into the new democracy, some schools are still using hair policies to discriminate against African learners. African hair is at the centre of the many reports of learners being discriminated and barred from schools due to their hair not conforming to the schools’ code of conduct which use Eurocentric or Westen values to define what is neat.’
The EFF has picketed the school premises.
The school’s code of conduct on hair reads: ‘All children’s hair must be clean and neat. Only natural hair is allowed. Only plain haircuts are permitted. No fashion clippings or shaves are allowed. No hair extensions are permitted. No bleaching / colouring / highlights, etc. allowed. Girls’ hair must be kept out of the eyes, once it reaches collar length, it must be tied up. Girls may tie up their hair in ponytails, a neat bun or neatly braided hair. (maximum two ponytails or two buns).’