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Earlier this month, a student of Belize Adventist Junior College was being prevented from enrolling in his final year of classes because of the length of his hair. Shadir Manzanero took to Facebook to lament that he was being denied his education because of his hair - a situation which is not unique to him. There have been previous incidents where young boys have been forced out of classes because of the length of their hair, despite community efforts to keep that same demographic in school and away from crime.
Today, the Minister of Education explained that he is aware of Manzanero's situation, and says that they deal with the schools when such issues arise.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"We do have a policy."
Reporter:
"Then it's not being enforced, or what's happening?"
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"We have these isolated cases, the recent one I'm aware of, but we do have a policy, the ministry, I think, last year or so we had one or two cases, the ministry put out a very strong policy statement stating very clear our position on this matter, it's unconstitutional. Whenever these cases arise, we immediately address them and solve them to the satisfaction of all parties involved so I don't think it's fair to say there's no policy, there's a very clear policy. Some schools from time to time violate that policy and we call them out and we deal with them, but at the same time, people have to understand that yes, schools do have the right to have certain rules and guidelines if you want to attend. But the length of your hair or your hairstyle is not one of them because some people want to throw out everything, oh school, free for all, that's not the case, it cannot be a free for all. We deal with them by calling them in and making it very clear to them that if this is repeated, there will be penalties, so we have to work with the schools."
The last time we spoke with Manzanero he said the school was not budging and that he would be forced to cut his hair.
