Hair-braided Chenise remains excluded from the classroom

A man whose daughter was sent home from school after splashing out on a £140 hairdo has said she will dye her hair in order to be allowed back into lessons.
Chenise BensonChenise Benson
Chenise Benson

Chenise Benson was sent home from George Pindar School on the Friday before the October half term for having the blonde box braids put into her hair.

Staff at the school said the 14-year-old’s new style was in breach of its uniform policy and she was not allowed to take her place with her friends in the classroom.

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The Scarborough News story into the fallout went viral, appearing in many UK national newspapers and even on the New York Times’ website.

Following the week-long half term Chenise’s father Darren attended a meeting with George Pindar headteacher Justin Leader.

He said the talk was amicable but, for now, she had not gone back to school.

He said: “We met and I put across that we thought it was unfair as another girl had the same hairstyle, apart from it was bright red, last year and was allowed to remain in lessons.

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“To be fair he said he was not at the school then and said Chenise could come back but she would have to remain in exclusion.

“But she does not want that, she has not done anything wrong so why should she have to spend her days with the kids who have been removed from lessons for spitting, fighting and swearing?

“We have agreed to dye the hair black and then the school has agreed to look at it again to see if it is more acceptable.

“However, we have dyed it black twice so far and it has gone grey so we are going to have to keep going to get it black.

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“She’s adamant that she does not want to get it cut and I don’t see why she should.“She wore it in a bun at school so it was not down and flowing as long as it looks in the pictures.”

Mr Benson said he was surprised that the story had made such a big impact.

“It was a bit of a shock but it was sad that some of the coverage was very mean towards my daughter, especially from The Sun,” he added.

“They made a lot of jokes at her expense and we’ve also had an apology from a television presenter who made untrue comments about her.”

George Pindar School did not respond to requests for a comment.