Da­reece Po­lo

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Mo­ka has bro­ken its si­lence on the con­tro­ver­sial de­ci­sion to pre­vent sev­er­al stu­dents from ful­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in their grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny on June 27 be­cause of their hair­styles, la­belling it “re­gret­table”.

In a press re­lease, the school’s ad­min­is­tra­tion and board of gov­er­nors con­demned the “mis­lead­ing” nar­ra­tive be­ing per­pet­u­at­ed that race played a fac­tor in the de­ci­sion.

The state­ment al­so crit­i­cised the re­sponse from some stu­dents and their par­ents, not­ing that they were re­mind­ed of the dress code sev­er­al times be­fore the event.

“The events of June 27 were, in the view of Trin­i­ty Col­lege, an act of in­dis­ci­pline by a few stu­dents sup­port­ed by par­ents. Com­pound­ing the sit­u­a­tion was the dis­rup­tion of the act of wor­ship and the vale­dic­to­ri­ans as well as bla­tant dis­re­spect for the prin­ci­pal and mas­ters of cer­e­monies who at­tempt­ed to re-es­tab­lish some or­der,” it said.

The school said while it ac­knowl­edged the vary­ing views sur­round­ing the pol­i­cy, ac­cept­able con­duct dic­tates that ex­ist­ing reg­u­la­tions must be fol­lowed.

Nonethe­less, the board said it wel­comes stake­hold­er talks on the mat­ter.

“We stand will­ing to con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions with all stake­hold­ers with a view to ven­ti­lat­ing the is­sues and ar­riv­ing at a so­lu­tion ahead of the new aca­d­e­m­ic year, which is con­so­nant with good or­der and chang­ing norms,” it said.

Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee not shocked

Mean­while, the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of T&T (ES­CTT) said it was ap­palled but not shocked by the treat­ment of the chil­dren at the grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny.

The group called it “tan­gi­ble ev­i­dence of the on­go­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion against peo­ple of African de­scent” and called for the re­moval of in­sti­tu­tion­alised racism masked as rules. Ac­cord­ing to the EC­STT, the stu­dents’ re­sis­tance was nec­es­sary.

“Yes, we do have to break rules and reg­u­la­tions that are un­just and not in our best in­ter­est, such as rules that re­in­force hair dis­crim­i­na­tion and we con­grat­u­late the stu­dents for main­tain­ing their stand in this mat­ter,” it said.

EC­STT al­so ap­pealed to the Gov­ern­ment, the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion, and the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to take de­ci­sive ac­tion in the mat­ter.

“We are in the Unit­ed Na­tions In­ter­na­tion­al Decade for Peo­ple of African De­scent, and T&T has agreed to the Pro­gramme of Ac­tiv­i­ties pro­posed for im­ple­men­ta­tion dur­ing this decade. We, there­fore, ap­peal to the Gov­ern­ment of T&T, the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion, and the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion for im­me­di­ate re­me­di­al ac­tion, ref­er­enc­ing the ar­ti­cle which ad­vo­cates for the pre­ven­tion of dis­crim­i­na­tion against chil­dren of African de­scent in both pub­lic and pri­vate ed­u­ca­tion,” it said.

The EC­STT al­so re­quest­ed an in­vi­ta­tion from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to par­tic­i­pate in the stake­hold­er meet­ing planned for Ju­ly 6.