Current Style: Standard
Religious appearance or dress
For state schools in South Australia, the law entitles students to wear dress or adornments symbolic of their religion to school regardless of uniform requirements.
For a state school, requiring a student to remove such articles may be discrimination.
Here’s an example:
| Edi is Sikh and he wears a turban. His teacher asked him to remove the turban because it did not form part of the school uniform. The school is discriminating against Edi because of his religious dress |
It’s different if the religious dress would create a safety hazard. In that case the school can set requirements to remove the hazard.
Here’s an example:
| Zahra wears religious dress with long flowing sleeves. Zahra’s science teacher asked Zahra to roll up her sleeves or secure them down while using a Bunsen burner. The school is not discriminating against Zahra. |
It’s also different if the dress covers the face, but the school needs to identify the student, for instance, to check that the person sitting the exam really is the student concerned. The school can ask the person to show their face.
There is a special rule for religious schools. They can insist that dress and adornments symbolic of other religions are not worn at school. For example, a Christian school could stop students from wearing pagan jewellery.
Last updated on Mon, 07/26/2010 - 16:12.
