Editorial: School out on a limb with piercings policy

Melissa Tualaulelei says facial piercings should be allowed. Photo / Natalie Slade

The principal of Rangitoto College is puzzled that a provincial girls' high school is ploughing new ground by approving facial piercings as part of its school uniform.

He will be far from alone. The decision by New Plymouth Girls' High flies in the face of what David Hodge detects, quite accurately, as a community demand for more conservative dress codes.

Uniforms are seen as a catalyst for upholding standards. And in education, as in life, the more pupils dress the part, the more, it is said, they will be inclined to be the part.

Supporters of the New Plymouth policy would doubtless respond that facial piercings have no bearing on the ability to learn. Others would say they are distracting and disruptive. Either way, a school's dress code should be set by the community and meet community expectations.

At the moment, facial piercing is not considered acceptable in much of everyday life.

Many employers want nothing to do with it, often on genuine health and safety grounds. Most people shun it, if only because in the pantheon of teenage acts of rebellion, it is one of the uglier.

New Plymouth Girls' High says lip and nose piercing will be allowed because it has been spending too much time trying to enforce a ban.

There are more important things to be doing.

Maybe so, but how hard can it be to detect piercings? And should schools not be echoing the view of the community, rather than kowtowing to an unlovely fad?