Decency vs. discrimination

Jun 02, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Was Mae’s School right to initially turn away the student who came to school dressed in traditional Amerindian wear? Was the school discriminating against the child when he wore shirtless indigenous regalia?
The first question is, “Whether the school was morally right to initially turn away the child for being shirtless even though this was part of his portrayal of indigenous wear?” The second question is, “Whether the act of turning away the child, and the alleged laugher by two teachers, amounted to ethnic discrimination?”
The controversy stems from an incident at Mae’s School. The school had extended an invitation to students to don ethnic wear to school on May 25, 2018 as part of the school’s observance of Guyana’s Independence anniversary, which was the next day, a public holiday.
The child, a boy, turned up to school dressed in a tibisiri skirt (over underpants). He also wore a beaded chain around his neck and an Indigenous headband, along with decorative body paint.
The child was allegedly turned back at the gate of the school by the guard who said he was inappropriately dressed. The parent of the child objected, pointing out he was appropriately dressed in indigenous wear and the guard reportedly deferred the matter to two teachers who allegedly burst into laughter. It is further alleged that a class teacher also determined that the child was inappropriately dressed. The school has issued a statement denying that any teacher was involved in the incident.
Whatever the facts, what is not denied by the school was that it refused entry to the child because he was inappropriately dressed because he was shirtless. Was the school right to deny entry to the child because his upper torso was exposed? It is a moral question, which can be answered by another moral question
In order to decide whether the dress was inappropriate, it needs to be asked whether school children should be allowed to expose the upper and middle torso of their bodies in school. Most people would say no.
Suppose, instead of the upper torso, the child had turned up with a loincloth, which leaves little to the imagination. Would that have been considered appropriate wear, even for an event, which promotes ethnic wear?
Relatedly, it must be asked whether the wearing of a shirt detracts from the child’s indigenous wear. One does necessarily need to be shirtless to be portraying indigenous wear.
Therefore, Mae’s does not have to apologize for demanding that the child wear a shirt. Mae’s acted correctly.
However, if the child was ridiculed (laughed at, criticized or mocked) by teachers for wearing that outfit, then the teachers should be sanctioned because it is ethnically and humanly insensitive. And in that instance, the teachers acted wrongly and the school should apologize and consider whether those teachers should continue to be part of the institution.
The second issue is the allegation of ethnic the discrimination. The argument here is that children of other ethnicities were allowed their wear but the child wearing the Amerindian outfit was not. But did the other children come shirtless or bottomless? Did they expose parts of their torso?
Persons are protesting outside of the school because they feel there was ethnic discrimination against the child. Discrimination has to involve differential treatment in similar circumstances. It assumes that one person is allowed to do something, not do something or benefit from something while another is not under similar circumstances.
If it can be established that another child, say one donning African or Indian wear, had turned up with either their top, midriff or lower torso exposed and was allowed entry, then a charge of ethnic discrimination can be sustained.
A case of discrimination can also be made if other children, who were not topless while portraying indigenous wear, were turned away. In other words, there was discrimination by other children donning indigenous wear even though their torsos were covered. In the absence of such evidence, the issue revolves around the principle of decency.
The issue to be decided is whether the school should allow entry to topless children regardless of their ethnic attire. The issue is a test of decency not discrimination.

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Decency vs. discrimination

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