This mum might declare her son as non-binary so he can keep his long hair

25 January 2020, 10:30

The mother of an 8-year-old boy with long hair considered declaring her son as non-binary so that he could keep his long hair at school.

Farouk James, who is Instagram famous for his long hair, has been told that his hair is too long to attend certain secondary schools.

His mother, Bonnie Miller, said that the schools she would like Farouk to attend are being "discriminatory" with their hair policies.

One mixed school had different rules for boys and girls when it came to hair length.

Bonnie Miller said this is "clearly sex discrimination".

To overcome these rules, Miller thought about registering her son as non-binary "to get around all of that".

Farouk thinks having to cut his hair for school is "silly and prejudiced".

Explaining their decision, his mother said: "More importantly than education is mental health.

"Therefore, I've had to question why do these rules exist.

"What's it all about? Who created this divide between men and women, with men having to have short hair and not wear skirts anymore and women have to have long hair and wea high heels in the workplace?

"All these other ridiculous rules that I think should generally be scrapped. Bad hair policies, bad dress policies and especially with hair because it comes out of his naturally, it's not manipulated."

Andrew Castle put it to Bonnie Miller that it's unfair to put an 8-year-old in a situation that breaks school uniform rules.

Miller said that school uniforms are great because they don't distinguish between the "haves and the have nots" but hair doesn't come into that.

She asked for a "really good, feasible reason" why girls can have long hair and not boys.

Bonnie Miller admitted that there is no legal option to register him as non-binary so it won't solve the problem.

She is, however, calling for legislation to resolve the issue.

The petition has already been signed by almost 3,000 people.