Categories: News

Hindu group seeks investigation of Perth Catholic school over dress code dispute

&NewLine;<p>Aranmore Catholic College &lpar;ACC&rpar; in Leederville &lpar;Perth&rpar; has been called out by the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism for allegedly removing a Hindu teenager from the school because she was wearing a nose stud&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The teenager&comma; identified in <em>The West Australian <&sol;em>as 15-year-old <br>Sanya Singhal&comma; reported that she was told not to return to class until the stud is removed&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Her mother told the newspaper&colon; &&num;8220&semi;They have exceptions for the Islamic girls by allowing them to wear their headscarf&comma; but we were told our cultural needs are not relevant&comma;” Ms Singhal said&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<hr class&equals;"wp-block-separator"&sol;>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong><em>School News<&sol;em><&sol;strong> has reached out to ACC and principal <br>Declan Tanham directly to clarify the situation and include their response&period; We will update this story with their full statement as soon as possible&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<hr class&equals;"wp-block-separator"&sol;>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Catholic schools tend to have strict dress codes in Australia&period; ACC&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8216&semi;Uniform and grooming guidelines 2018&&num;8217&semi; note that students are permitted to wear a maximum of one plain silver or gold small stud or small sleeper per lower ear lobe but that additional piercings&comma; taping&comma; or plastic studs are not permitted&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Hindu statesman Rajan Zed&comma; in a statement today&comma; said he believes the school&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;policies and procedures&&num;8221&semi; are &&num;8220&semi;discriminatory and denied the right to express religious and cultural identity&&num;8221&semi;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He has urged Western Australia &lpar;WA&rpar; Minister for Education and Training Suzanne Mary Ellery&comma; Roman Catholic Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe&comma; Catholic Education Commission of WA Chair Bishop Gerard Holohan and Catholic Education WA Executive Director Debra Sayce to launch a thorough investigation&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Zed&comma; who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism&comma; said that this student was &&num;8220&semi;honoring the tradition of her family&comma; who were reportedly of Indian descent&comma; by putting a stud in her pierced nose&&num;8221&semi;&period; Nose piercings and ornaments have been a tradition of women of India for centuries and the Hindu goddesses have been depicted wearing nose ornaments&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Besides suspending &lbrack;the principal&rsqb; and cooperating in the enquiry&semi; &lbrack;the ACC Board&rsqb; should admit the mistake&comma; immediately reinstate and apologise to &lbrack;the student&rsqb; and her parents&comma; issue a formal apology&comma; and amend the &&num;8216&semi;Uniform and Grooming Guidelines&&num;8217&semi; accordingly for future&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Rajan Zed noted&period;<span style&equals;"background-color&colon; rgb&lpar;232&comma; 234&comma; 235&rpar;&semi;" class&equals;"tadv-color"><b><i>&period; <&sol;i><&sol;b><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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