Boys Ear Piercing

bopeep101

Hi All. My 13 year old nephew wanted his ear pierced for his Confirmation. So with his mothers blessing I took him and had it done - a nice little neat stud in the left ear. He was delighted . However his mother was called to the school next day and told it would have to come out as it was against school rules for boys to have ear piercings :mad:. I am wondering, in this day and age can a school ban boys from wearing ear piercings when girls are allowed have them. Does that not fall within the realms of discrimination? Can anyone enlighten me on this subject or has anyone here had any experience of this? Would love to hear about it if so. Thanks all.

glorified g

im sure the family had to sign some sort of Code of Conduct before the child attended the school. When i was going we had to do the same. No ear rings, no beards (girls got away with that one aswell ) and no colour in our hair. Seemed harsh but that was just the rules of the school!

bopeep101

No they didn't have to sign anything nor were they issued with anything like that (it is a small country national school). However it is printed in the school policy, which my sister seen for the first time when she was informed of the rule. I understand that school rules are school rules but I just wondered if it is the norm or not. I know the primary school my son goes to has no such rule and also the secondary school my daughter went to (which was a stickler for rules and appearance) allowed boys and girls wear studs in one or both ears only. No other piercings and no dangling earings, which seemed fair to me. Same rule for both boys and girls.

moonflower

I'm sure they're not allowed to do that. Fair enough if they had a 'No earrings on any student' rule, but to have one rule for girls and another for boys seems crazy!

There's only what... two months left of the school term? Maybe the mother could have a word with the school and ask them to allow him to leave it in til the end of term, then he can wear it for the summer and it will probably have healed enough for him to take it out for school in September.

glorified g

i know one of the ways a few of my friends tried to get away with it was to cover it by cutting some of the adhesive part of a plaster off and wrapping it over the stud. Unless your really staring at ears its pretty hard to spot!

Raze_them_all

just get a clear ball. Sorted

3hn2givr7mx1sc

Was the same in my primary school. The reasoning behind it was that lads are more likely to be playing football/messing in general and having the earring pulled out. Secondary school I'm in now has the same for lads and girls, though - one stud in each ear.

bopeep101

moonflower wrote: »

I'm sure they're not allowed to do that. Fair enough if they had a 'No earrings on any student' rule, but to have one rule for girls and another for boys seems crazy!

There's only what... two months left of the school term? Maybe the mother could have a word with the school and ask them to allow him to leave it in til the end of term, then he can wear it for the summer and it will probably have healed enough for him to take it out for school in September.

Yea I agree. I just felt that in this day and age when equality is such a big issue it seems crazy that they can implement such a rule. My sister has spoken to the school principal and they have (grudgingly) agreed to allow him leave it in for the six weeks it will take to heal provided it is covered (as someone else posted) with a flesh coloured tape. After the six weeks it will have to come out during school hours. He leaves for secondary school at the end of the school year anyway so it won't be an issue after that. But I just felt that such a policy shouldn't be allowed.

bopeep101

baz2009 wrote: »

Was the same in my primary school. The reasoning behind it was that lads are more likely to be playing football/messing in general and having the earring pulled out. Secondary school I'm in now has the same for lads and girls, though - one stud in each ear.

That's one way of looking at it but I know in my Nephew's school (as is probably the case in a lot of primary schools) the girls play football also and are very much encouraged to do so, so in this instance that logic fails I am still amazed they are getting away with it. Wonder if there are any Department of Education guidelines regarding such matters.

Fozzydog3

alternitavely tell your nephew to get some class and remind him its not 1995

Raze_them_all

Fozzydog3 wrote: »

alternitavely tell your nephew to get some class and remind him its not 1995

Tattoo and piercing forum.

seamus

It's illegal to discriminate in this manner, the school cannot allow girls to wear earrings and state that boys may not.

I used this to get around an employer back when I was a teenager. The employee handbook stated that women were allowed to wear a maximum of two earrings. I had two piercings in one ear at the time.
I was told to remove them as per the dress code that men were not allowed earrings, but after I pointed out that women are allowed wear two earrings they had to back down
Also, the wording of the code was ambiguous enough that other men were allowed wear a single ring if that's what they had - it said something like "a maximum of two" rather than "one in each ear".

Atavan-Halen

bopeep101 wrote: »

. He leaves for secondary school at the end of the school year anyway so it won't be an issue after that. But I just felt that such a policy shouldn't be allowed.

Check the rules of the secondary school too as a lot will have a policy on earrings. I was lucky in my primary school as I was allowed have my earrings. I had 2 in my lobe and then got the top of my ear pierced in 3rd class and the teachers just laughed and called me lord of the rings :rolleyes: Was then a bit of a shock going in on my first day of 1st year and the first thing I was told is those earrings have to come out. It's an all boys school too so I couldn't use the girl arguement. So I took them out and then once I started getting more piercings in around 3rd year I just hid them. Now that I'm in 6th year the teachers don't care anymore and I can wear them without having to hide them. Anyway, it is ridiculous about piercings but the rules are there for health and safety reasons and tbh covering it just makes it more noticeable. I doubt the teachers will notice if he leaves it in after the 6 weeks as they'll just be used to seeing him with it.

bopeep101

seamus wrote: »

It's illegal to discriminate in this manner, the school cannot allow girls to wear earrings and state that boys may not.

Yea Seamus. I thought that such discrimination would be illegal also and would love to know for sure, but can't seem to find any information with which my sister could confront the school.

To atavan-halen - My nephew's older brother is in the Secondary school he will be moving on to and discrete piercing's are ok there. Also you are probably right with regard to the teachers not noticing the earing after the six week period. However as she has one more boy to go through the school system (he's only in junior infants now) she is probably going to confront this issue again in the future:rolleyes:

To Fozzydog3 - :rolleyes:

Tanya1988

my nephew had his ear peirced before and had no problem in school
sounds like a bit of discrimination. . escpecially when the parents didn't
sign anything to agree to this!!.