DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, October 9, 2007: The Constitutional Court last Friday ruled that Durban High School had violated the right of
19-year-old Sunali Pillay by refusing her permission to wear her nose stud when she was a student at the school three years ago. The court ordered that the school should amend its code of conduct to take into account the cultural needs of school children. The Constitutional Court Chief Justice Pius Langa said the school had not taken into account the young girl’s Tamil tradition. The judge ruled that evidence has shown wearing a nose stud was a voluntary practice, and it formed part of Pillay’s South Indian Tamil culture. Langa recommended that a “properly drafted code which sets realistic boundaries and provides a procedure to be followed in applying for and granting exemptions is the proper way to foster a spirit of accommodation in our schools and to avoid acrimonious disputes.”
But despite the ruling some headmasters and teachers told the Daily News in Durban on Monday that the ruling would affect discipline in schools.”Will Zulu children ask to come to school barefoot, saying it’s their culture? what happens when a Christian pupil wears a large crucifix, or a Muslinpupil comes to school with a beard?” a former deputy principal was quoted as saying. Another teacher said: “School heads go to a huge amount of trouble to establish a culture for their school. Dress codes are not an isolated issue. They are linked to commitment, discipline, identity and self-pride and are intimately connected to all the things a school stands for.” But Pillay’s mother Navi Pillay, who fought the school over the issue for three years through the courts, said Constitutional Court’s decision was not a threat to discipline at schools. “Schools are not about churning out robots. By allowing kids to be themselves,they learn more about themselves. How can this affect discipline?” she said.