We can all connect to school regulations, even though our recollections of school can be both happy and sad. It’s a turbulent time filled with highs and lows.
While some regulations, such as prohibiting jewelry during sporting events, make sense, it seems wasteful of resources and misses educational opportunities for the children engaged to send someone home with excessive makeup or because they brought in a particular soda.
Schools’ stringent policies on children’s appearance frequently conflict with the moments in their lives when they desire to stand out and express themselves.
These regulations may have gone too far for one mother and her kid and may have prevented an 8-year-old boy from receiving a quality education.
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Model scouts are drawn to Farouk James of London, England, because of his gorgeous head of hair. He’s done photo sessions in Italy and New York and is currently employed as a child model.
However, his look has only caused problems for him in the classroom; because of the length of his hair, he has been turned down by several schools.
James’s mother, Bonnie Miller, claims that she was informed that her older brother’s hair was too short while he was in school.
According to Bonnie, Farouk’s father is from Ghana, and his parents didn’t cut his hair until he was three years old due to cultural customs.
Bonnie told CBS News, “At that point, he was attached— and so was I, to be honest— with his beautiful hair.” “We only retained the hair.”
The family resides in the UK, where the majority of schools have a regulation prohibiting boys from having long hair, even if girls are permitted to.
According to Bonnie, it is against children’s human rights to have them cut their hair.
“I will not give up trying to persuade governments to put legislation in place to protect children from these outdated, punishing rules,” his mom Bonnie wrote on Instagram.
“Farouk hasn’t done anything wrong and YOU REJECT HIM! He will say good bye to his friends as they all get accepted into the schools he so desperately wants to attend.”
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This situation even prompted Bonnie to start a Change.org petition to ban hair discrimination in the U.K.
“We’re getting a real team together and calling it the Mane Generation,” Bonnie said. “We’re going to fight this until these rules get changed. And it’s globally, not just domestically in the U.K.”
An Instagram account featuring Farouk and his life as a fun-loving boy and child model is managed by his mom and has more than a quarter of a million followers.
But despite all the love and support he gets online they still receive negative comments. After an appearance on popular U.K. TV morning show ‘This Morning’ to discuss the family’s struggle to find a school which will accept Farouk and his hair, Bonnie said she received many negative comments.
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“This week is mental health week so I’m surprised to be receiving lots of negative comments about Farouk’s hair,” Bonnie wrote in May last year.
“Farouk’s hair is a God given part of him and he will not be cutting it to appease anyone, just as he does not keep it long at my request either.”
Bonnie argues that the appearance rules for girls and boys at schools are archaic and in some cases racist with many schools banning dreadlocks and braids.
The mom says she will never stop fighting for acceptance of Farouk and his hair and all the other children who are discriminated against for wanting to express their cultural heritage and who they are.
Farouk’s hair is part of who he is and rejecting a child on the basis of his or her hair by those who are trusted to teach our children is unacceptable in 2022. These rules should be banned.
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