Beards banned

Beards may be the current craze but male students at The Lodge School will have to sport clean-shaven faces.

Parents of students attending the St John secondary school were left both perplexed and irate after they received letters earlier this week from acting principal Robin Douglas, informing them that their charges would have to completely remove any facial hair.

However, Douglas has defended the move, saying he is merely enforcing the school’s dress code.

A mother whose son received a letter informing him that he would have to remove all of his facial hair by September 25 or risk being suspended from school, told Barbados TODAY she was confused about the logic behind the decision.

She said the fifth-former was extremely disappointed that he was being forced to shave his “cherished” beard.

“I really can’t understand why a principal would see the need to ask boys to cut off their moustache or their beard. It makes absolutely no sense,” she contended.

“At this age boys are going through puberty and more often than not they are extremely proud of any kind of facial hair they grow. My son only has a few strands of beard but he was quite proud of it and now he has to cut it off.”

She said she would understand if it was a case where the school was asking for untidy or unkempt facial hair to be trimmed.

The upset parent argued there were more important issues that needed to be addressed, such as the school’s inability to produce a scholarship or exhibition winner in recent years.

“Those are the types of issues that parents want to see addressed, not issues which are small, insignificant and nonsensical,” she insisted.

Another parent who spoke to Barbados TODAY, said he was “quite shocked” when his son brought the letter home.

He said the letter described his son’s facial hair as “totally unacceptable” and further stated that it “will not be accommodated” during the school year.

“When I first got the letter I was a bit taken aback, but after reading it in its entirety I was even more confused.

“Why on earth would a school have a problem with boys wearing facial hair? It has left me absolutely stumped,” he said.

Nevertheless, the parent said he took his son to the barber the same day he got the letter to shave his beard.

In explaining the reason behind the enforcement, the school’s principal said the rule was nothing new.

“It is written clearly in The Lodge School’s handbook regarding the dress code that male students are not permitted to wear facial hair. As the principal, I was merely enforcing the school’s rules,” Douglas said in his brief response.

Efforts to reach Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw for comment proved unsuccessful.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb