KEY POINTS:
Isn't young Shaquille Rollinson lucky to have the mother he's got? Shaquille's 10 and his mum, Donna, let him get his eyebrow and his lower lip pierced two years ago. He must have been the coolest 8-year-old in Napier. And now, Donna's got Shaq's back. She's fighting for him to keep wearing his face jewellery to school after he was told by the principal he had to leave the rings at home. Donna says she was "shocked" to receive a call from the principal. Shocked, she was. The principal explained that when boys were playing sport or engaging in the sort of rough and tumble play that young cubs engage in, there was a chance Shaquille could get injured. Donna was having none of it. This is a primary school, she spluttered. Shaquille's there to learn not to cause trouble. Donna was also outraged at what she perceived to be the tone of the phone call. "He lectured me," she said. "He pretty much told me I shouldn't have let my son get pierced and said I should have been a more responsible parent." Yay! Go the principal! If he maintains that level of interest in Shaquille's well-being, Shaquille might have a fighting chance of turning out OK. And yet the most shocking part of this story is not Donna's misguided, well-meaning parenting. It's that as justification for her son's piercing, she pointed to the fact that plenty of young girls at Shaquille's school had belly button piercing and nobody was doing anything about that.
Dear God. I feel a dose of reactionary right-wing conservatism coming on. Where's Sue Bradford when you need her? As an addendum to the repeal of Section 59, could we also put in a law forbidding all piercing of body parts (except ear lobes) on children under 16?
