Girl kicked out of school for her natural dreadlocks

A 13-year-old pupil has been barred from attending classes at Crowthorne Christian Academy because her dreadlocks violated the school’s new hair policy.

The pupil could not attend school on Monday and Tuesday this week after she was forcefully removed from her classroom. A video capturing the moment, including the alleged assault of the mother by a school official, surfaced on social media yesterday.

The school in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, is owned by principal Tanya Booysen and her husband Andries. According to the Gauteng department of education it has been operating illegally. 

In a dramatic video that played out on the school premises on Monday, a man known as Henk to parents, who is Booysen’s husband, can be seen aggressively pushing the pupil and her mother out of a classroom after they insisted on seeing Booysen.

Henk questioned what the parents did not like about the rules and said the school would not allow the pupil to attend class.

Explaining how the altercation came about, the child’s mother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, said she decided to go to the school on Monday to meet Booysen. This, she said, was to explain that her daughter’s locks were her natural hair and not extensions.

The school’s revised policy states “Only natural hair allowed, No hair extensions are permitted”.

The mother said her daughter had grown the dreadlocks from when she was younger and cut them off when she was nine to accommodate her ballet and contemporary dance exams which required her hair to be in a certain way. 

In April the school changed its code of conduct with regards to the grooming of pupils’ hair. Hair extensions were not permitted and pupils could only come to school with their natural hair. Physical copies of the renewed code of conduct were sent to parents at the end of the second term. 

“My daughter used to go to school with her natural Afro tied in a bun and she’d sometimes do braids or I would plait her natural hair,” the mother said. 

“But since the rules changed, I decided to reinstall her natural dreadlocks which I had kept from when she had dreadlocks as a child. This was during the school holidays, and I noticed her afro was getting damaged because she could no longer do braids so I installed her dreadlocks,” she said. 

The mother said she explained to the principal that her daughter would be returning to school with dreadlocks and that they were not extensions. She said she never received a response to her text.

Two weeks ago while on holiday, the mother said she received a message from Booysen complaining about her daughter’s dreadlocks not being tied neatly in a bun.

She said she corrected the matter and the school sent her another text on Saturday saying her daughter should not return to school on Monday if her dreadlocks were intact. 

“I am referring again to the message sent on July 22. [Name] hair was extended, regardless of what it is called. You have had ample time to remove the hair that was extended. I expect the extensions to be removed before [learner] comes to school on Monday,” the message read. 

Accompanied by her mother, the pupil went to school with her dreadlocks on Monday.

“Tanya [the principal] refused to meet me and instead called her husband [Henk], who lives in their house on the same property as the school, to forcefully drag my daughter out of the classroom.” 

The situation quickly escalated when the mother warned Henk not to touch her daughter. 

“He assaulted me and pushed me to the floor in front of other pupils. They were saying horrible things and telling my daughter to take her things and never return to school,” she said. 

She has opened a common assault case with the police against Henk and will also lay a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against the school. 

Police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi confirmed the case but said no arrest has been made yet.

Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the school was operating illegally. 

“The department is aware of the incident at the said school. It must be noted the said school is illegally operating and the pupil was offered alternative schooling and counselling. We are assisting the school to comply and encouraging all unregistered institutions to engage with the department for assistance with the registration process.”

The teenager’s parents are undecided whether to keep her at the school or enrol her elsewhere.

“Though the department tried to intervene and said my daughter could return to the school in her dreadlocks, they also gave me options of other schools. My issue is that the school follows the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum and is different from the curriculum in South Africa so it won’t be easy to find a school. 

“My daughter is not comfortable with going back after the humiliation, but she is missing school while her peers are learning,” she said.

SowetanLIVE