Boy (16) made complaint under Equal Status Act in relation to school’s contention that he should take out stud or have both ears pierced
Boy made complaint under Equal Status Act in relation to school’s contention that he should take out stud or have both ears piercedadjudicator has said he will have to consider whether a school’s rules on ear piercings might amount to indirect discrimination after noting an argument advanced by a boy’s solicitor that ear piercings had “significance in terms of gender sexual orientation”.
In his evidence to the tribunal, the 16-year-old student said his principal “was like a heat lock-on missile” and “just kept roaring and roaring” when his mother was called in during an impasse over his new ear piercing at the start of the school term.
“I think their intention is that boys don’t wear studs ... I think they know boys won’t pierce the other ear because they’ll be called gay, they’ll be called names. They won’t go through the hassle of it, and they’ll take it out,” the claimant told the WRC. Counsel for the school Kevin Roche said that after the young man instructed a solicitor in the matter, he had been sent a legal letter to say he would be considered to be “in compliance” if he “covered the ear with plaster”.Under cross-examination, the boy said the rule was “not fully enforced for the girls” at the school.
The complainant claims he has been subject to sanctions over the issue, including being placed sitting outside the principal’s office, being denied leave to go to town on his lunch break, and being assigned to evening detention resulting in him missing his bus home.
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