Antigua and Barbuda’s government has strongly condemned schools who discriminate against Rastafarian children or those who simply choose to wear locs, saying it is a form of discrimination, albeit disguised as school rules.

The Gaston Browne administration, in a statement on Wednesday, reminded that its policy permits locs in schools, and warns that it will go to Parliament to add legal obligations if the position is not adopted.

It followed public outrage after a five-year-old girl was barred from school on her first day because she had locs.

Jordan Mason said her daughter had been accepted to the New Bethel Seventh Day Adventist Academy in Liberta – but when the woman took her child to the orientation on Monday, she was pulled aside by the school’s principal who informed her that the child could not attend school with locs.

The woman has denied legal counsel in the matter, choosing instead to transfer her daughter to another school. 

“No little girl should have to face that trauma,” she reasoned.