Minister in the Ministry of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds, has challenged the principal of St Charles High School, Sr Adrianna Noel, and representatives of the Hindu, Muslim and Jewish faiths to point out where in their religious texts "Dreadlocks are immoral and sinful".
If this can be done, Hinds declared, "I will not cut off my hair, but I will present them with a pair of scissors, and they can cut off my hair."
In an interview with the Express yesterday afternoon, Hinds described the refusal by Noel to admit 12-year-old Kalifa Logan to the Tunapuna school with her rasta hairstyle as "a most unfortunate development".
Logan was barred from taking up a place at the Catholic-run St Charles High School, assigned to her after she wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam, due to her dreadlocks.
Logan's mother Lynette Marshall has refused to cut her daughter's locks, saying her entire family was Rastafarian. And, she has also refused to accept a transfer for her daughter to Five Rivers Junior Secondary School.
Sympathising with Logan, Hinds, also a Rastafarian, said: "My first feeling is a deep sense of sadness for Kalifa, as God only knows how she is feeling."
"Being made a public spectacle of, as well as the topic of national debate, she must be going through serious trauma and self-doubt," he continued
He added: "It is a very unthinking position on the part of the principal."
Stating that "the rules of the school should never be superior to the dictates of the Constitution, and the will of the almighty God", Hinds said he would have understood Sr Noel's stance if the "child had demonstrated anti-social behaviour".
Told that the Ministry of Education had organised a transfer for Logan to attend the Five Rivers Junior Secondary School, as the principal there had willingly accepted her hairstyle, Hinds charged that this was a blatant "demonstration of national schizophrenia" by the private institution which was not willing to accept the child as she was.
Asked what advice he would offer to both Logan and Marshall, the Laventille East/Morvant MP said: "I urge them to be dignified and keep faith."
Also, "They should be quiet and approach the courts, as I am sure they will favour there."
Asked if he would have taken on the case had he not been in public office, Hinds answered: "I would have, but I am sure there are lots of people out there who will help them."
In 1994, Sumayyah Mohammed challenged the decision by the school board of Holy Name Convent, Port of Spain, to debar her from wearing the hijab to school.
In a landmark ruling handed down by Justice Margot Warner on January 18, 1995, she said that the decision by the school to refuse Mohammed was "irrational and unreasonable" and that the school had "abused its discretion".
Warner also disagreed that the wearing of the hijab "would lead to indiscipline and additional requests" of the school.
Principal of Holy Name Convent at the time, Lucia Moraine, had suggested that Mohammed resit the Common Entrance Exam, as it was known at the time, or seek a transfer.
However, Warner ruled that these suggestions were "extraneous", and ruled that Mohammed should be allowed to attend the school wearing her hijab.
Meanwhile, principal of the Five Rivers Junior Secondary School, Joan Bridgewater, yesterday confirmed that Logan has been transferred to the school.
However, she is still waiting on the child to come in to be registered.
Speaking with the Express yesterday, Bridgewater said her school was a Government institution "which does not practise discrimination".
"The real focus is on the students' behaviour," and not their hairstyles, she stressed.
Bridgewater also said there were other children attending the school with dreadlocks.
Ministry of Education communications specialist Mervyn Crichlow said if Logan's mother was not happy with the transfer, she needed to communicate this to the Ministry, and not the media.
