{"id":2466,"date":"2019-06-26T19:21:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T19:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2019-06-26T19:21:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T19:21:04","slug":"bleachers-exiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2466","title":{"rendered":"Bleachers exiled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Nattoo – <\/em><\/strong>Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, in a letter supposedly issued by administrators of the Irwin High School in St. James and addressed to parents\/guardians, students who were found guilty of skin bleaching were being asked to stay at home \u2013 away from the classroom \u2013 until their \u201coriginal complexion\u201d returned. The PNPYO caught wind of the now highly publicized issue and, in a statement to the Western Mirror, <\/strong>are shunning the actions of the school administrators, claiming, among other things, that the letter infringes on the UN Convention\u2019s Rights of the Child to education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The letter supposedly issued by the Irwin High School administration<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs creative as the letter was, it was not the appropriate\nresponse and could in fact compound the problem, rather than solve it, by\nkeeping children out of school,\u201d the PNPYO declared. They continued: \u201cOur\nconcern stems from the fact that Jamaica is a signatory the UN Convention on\nthe Rights of the Child, wherein the right to education is guaranteed. The act\nof preventing students from attending school due to skin bleaching could open\nthe door for parents to mount a challenge on the basis that it infringes on\ntheir right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of colour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter, which surfaced sometime around the week of the\n16th<\/sup> to the 22nd<\/sup>, is quoted as saying: \u201cWe have observed\nthe changes to the tone and complexion of the skin of your child\/ward. These\nchanges are more visible on his\/her face when compared to the photograph that\nis on file. We are therefore asking for a medical report from a doctor\nconcerning the condition, as we are not sure if it is contagious. If this is\nnot forthcoming, we ask that the child\/ward remains home until his\/her original\ncomplexion has returned and when it would have been deemed safe for him\/her to\nbe integrated into the school population. Thank you for your cooperation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PNPYO further shared with the Western Mirror<\/strong> that\nwhile they understood the need to curb the worrying trend, the approach could\nbenefit from being more tactful on the part of the school administration. \u201cWe\nmust endeavour to implement a more strategic response that allows for\npsychological reconciliation that has not happened post-independence.\u201d To that\nend, in admitting that the education system could be the driver of the\npost-independence reconciliation for these troubled students, the youth\norganization made several suggestions they believe could positively impact the\nproblem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SUGGESTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of what they believe to be a reparative,\ncomprehensive and long term approach, the PNPYO suggests first formalizing\nGarveyism as part of the nation-wide school curriculum, and testing the\nframework through partnerships with the Liberty Hall and the UNIA (Universal\nNegro Improvement Association). Additionally, \u201cPartnering with community\nstakeholders and psychologists to set up clubs and societies in the most\naffected schools,\u201d with a focus on self-esteem, racial pride and behaviour\nchange and modification, the PNPYO believes, could further serve to dissuade\nthe act of skin bleaching among students, and even adults. They lastly\nsuggested the retooling of the guidance departments in these schools.\n\u201cEquipping guidance counsellors with the intervention skills and resources to\npersuade the student and their families against the practice of skin\nbleaching,\u201d they added, could also help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShaming students is not the most efficient means of helping\nthem. Let us retool them with the confidence they need to embrace their noble\nheritage in totality, without jeopardizing their prospects of success through\neducation and training,\u201d the PNPYO concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, in a letter supposedly issued by administrators of the Irwin High School in St. James and addressed to parents\/guardians, students who were found guilty of skin bleaching were being asked to stay at home \u2013 away from the classroom \u2013 until their \u201coriginal complexion\u201d returned. The PNPYO caught wind of the now highly publicized issue and, in a statement to the Western Mirror, are shunning the actions of the school administrators, claiming, among other things, that the letter infringes on the UN Convention\u2019s Rights of the Child to education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1327,1329,1328,1113,1324,1331,1326,1325,1330,30],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bleaching","tag-colonialism","tag-colour","tag-irwin-high-school","tag-pnpyo","tag-rights-of-the-child","tag-skin","tag-skin-bleaching","tag-un-convention","tag-western-jamaica"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2469,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions\/2469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}