School Suspends Indian Girl for Nose Piercing
A cultural ritual for an Indian tween girl in Utah turned into an ordeal for her family when her American school suspended her for it.
The AP reports Suzannah Pabla, whose father is a Sikh born in India (and hence wears a turban although he lives and works in the US), pierced her nose to connect with her Indian roots. Her school called it a violation of a body piercing ban and kicked the girl out of school.
According to the district, it constituted a cultural choice rather than a religious observation. But in India, where culture and religion are closely enmeshed, the nose piercing can mean many things. It’s been reported to be a sign of social standing and beauty, as well as a nod to Parvathi, the goddess of marriage.
So it’s clearly a cultural thing. Perhaps a religious thing. And hence a violation of Pabla’s first amendment rights. The school has relented a bit - they’ve allowed her to keep a clear stud (sort of a spacer?) in there during school hours.
But should it even matter? Should schools be weighing in on body piercing? By dictating what kids can and can’t do to their ears, nose, eyebrows, tongue, they aren’t just limiting what kids can do in school the way they are with baggy pants or too short skirts. Piercings, at least initially, need to remain in for a significant period of time in order for the hole to remain open. A kid who gets a pierced eyebrow on a Friday night can’t take it out Monday morning.
But even that is beside the point. What does a piercing do? Does it start a fist fight? Incite a riot? Although their may be a momentary kerfuffle when a kid walks into school with a new piercing, they’re generally quickly forgotten. Unless, of course, piercings are verboten. Then they cause quite the spectacle when a child walks into school with a new one.
Again, what’s the point? The piercing is painful to just one person - the kid who got them. And they’re often a passing fancy, one that’s worth getting out of the way when you’re a teenager rather than a twenty-two-year-old fresh out of college and attempting to get a job on Wall Street with six studs in your nose.
Image: Bubble Monkey via flickr
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Tags: culture, dress code violations, education, india, Jeanne Sager, nose piercing, nostril piercing, piercing, religion, schools
6 Comments
Trey commented on Nov 09 09 at 6:31 pmI have an idea. Let’s just not have any rules.
Because schools that follow them are going to get sued anyway.
And, then we’ll have people write about how mean schools are for actually wanting teens to go to school for education, rather than a fashion show. Next we’ll let them have barely covering skirts (why not? It only affects the girl who wants to display her girlie bits). And, boys who want their pants around their ankles (which only affects them when they try to walk).
Next, we’ll left the ban on bandanas, skip uniforms…
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Nov 09 09 at 7:42 pmI feel like some school administrators were just formerly bullied kids that are taking out their revenge fantasies on a new crop of kids. If the rule can’t be rationally justified, then it shouldn’t be a rule.
GP commented on Nov 09 09 at 9:30 pmUtah sucks
Amanda commented on Nov 10 09 at 12:19 pmDon’t schools have the right to set up dress codes?
Ri-chan commented on Nov 10 09 at 7:55 pmI can’t speak for this school, but the high school I went to had administrator’s who were on a MAJOR power trip. The definatly abused their powers and would stare at girls breasts when they thought no one was looking or make up rules just for the sake of having rules.
akhila commented on Nov 22 09 at 4:24 amI am an Indian. Here it is common for girls to pierce ONLY their ears and noses. This may or may not have been ritualistic. As a school, dress codes have to be sensitive and sensible, both. In the USA, piercing all other parts of the body has gained ground as a ritual of mutilation by young and sometimes even mature women. Mutilation of the body in an urban industrialised developed country is sometimes seen as a reaction to low self image (Reviving Ophelia).
This girl and her family had two options too:
1. They could have negotiated earlier with school, explaining the ritual nature
2. They could have waited a few more years to pierce that girl’s nose.
I wonder how many Indians even make a connection with Parvati’s nod.
The family is Sikh, and do not even worship the goddess mentioned in all probability.
The question is to ask: is it alright for religious symbols to crop up? The Hijab: the muslim scarf, of the skull cap or even a small ritual kumkum mark, or even the cross?
Rules are good.
Dress codes are necessary.
Humane ness is most necessary in a school.
This is true whether the school suspects a girl of carrying drugs and strip searches her or as in this case, just summarily suspends her…
