Ridiculous!

This news article is just plain madness.

To start with, I have a minor connection to this whole situation, so I know the background of the story and what's going on. The ABC has contacted the school, and even had the headmaster on the radio this morning, and have had reporters at the school today, so to say they "have unsuccessfully attempted to contact the school" is rubbish to start with.

Ormiston College is a non-denominational private school. It has a very strict dress code. The dress code is applied to all students regardless of race, religion or other beliefs. If a student doesn't follow the dress code, then they receive the appropriate punishment.

A Sikh family applied to have their son enter the school. Obviously, on application, they received the school's prospectus, which included the dress code. Thus, they were given the opportunity to read it. They applied to the school. The school offered their son a place, but made note to the family that he would have to shave his beard and would only be allowed to wear the school's hat and not a turban. No student at the school is allowed to have any facial hair, and no student is allowed to wear any headgear other than the school's hat. The family decided not to send their son to the school on the basis of this information, because they claim they will be excommunicated if their son does not wear a turban and beard.

The family are now claiming that the school discriminated against them and are seeking retribution in the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal.

I find this whole thing ridiculous. It's a private school, it's not the only one in the area, nor is it the only school in the near vicinity to the family, public or otherwise. It's not like the family had no choice but to send their son to OC.

The school did not refuse entry to the student, as the article says at the beginning. They offered him a place provided he comply with the school's dress code like every other student. The family was not happy with this, so obviously they didn't accept the place offered. How have they been put out? What have they lost, monetary or otherwise? Nothing, as far as I can see.

If you're going to choose to send your children to a private school, then you choose the school that best suits your needs. Obviously OC's strict dress code didn't suit this family needs, but I fail to see how it's discrimination. The school has a very diverse student body with representation from many different races and religions. All of the students adhere to the same dress code.

Were the school to allow students of religious backgrounds to attend school in their religious garb, where does it stop? If the Sikh student was allowed to wear his turban and a beard, wouldn't the other male students then claim they should be allowed to have facial hair too, and wear a hat other than the school's? The whole thing could get out of hand very quickly.

I like JR's comment at 26 Feb 2008 9:57:43am (minus the bad grammar and punctuation):

If the rule is that you must wear the school uniform then discrimination is to allow one race or minority group to do otherwise. Discrimination like this must be stopped. [I]f the school wouldn[']t allow any child of a [C]hristian religion to have unkempt hair then it must no[t] allow children of other religions to do so either. If you allow special treatment or 'affirmative action' then you should be liable for discriminating against mainstream society. [J]ust because your [sic] a member of a minority group doesn[']t mean that your [sic] discriminated against.

I really think the school has done the right thing in setting up a strict dress code and making sure all students follow it. This ensures that all students' appearance is exactly the same, and no one can say they feel discriminated against. It's a condition of entry that you agree to follow the school's rules, including the dress code, and if you don't agree with it, then it's pretty simple that you wouldn't send your kids there.

I just don't get it. I don't understand why this family feels they have been discriminated against. The school didn't refuse their son entry, they refused the school's offer of a place once they realised their son would have to follow the dress code like everyone else. How is this discrimination? It's not as if the son was flat out refused entry because of his religious beliefs. He was accepted into the school provided he follow the same rules that every other student has to follow. Even the jewish students at the school aren't allowed to wear their yamulkas, the mulsim students aren't allowed to wear burqas, etc. In fact, there is an employee of the school who is Sikh, and her children don't wear the turbans or have facial hair, and they haven't been excommunicated from their faith.

I really think this is a case of this family trying to make it an "us and them" situation, when it wasn't to start with.

Of course, given that the Anti Discrimination Tribunal has an "every child wins a prize" policy, the family is certain to receive something for this ridiculous case. Which is really a shame, in my opinion.

Stationery Stupidity

I have a thing for stationery. I don't know why, I just love it. And I have to have things in every single available colour or type that is produced. I have every colour Stabilo Boss highlighter, and every colour Post It Note in every type available. It's a sickness really. Anyway, at my previous job, there was a stationery cupboard full of the usual stationery items which employees could just go to and grab whatever they wanted. For items not in the cupboard, you had to make a special request. "Why do you need a purple highlighter? We have yellow, green, blue and pink. That's all you should need." "Umm... because I'm colour-coordinating comments on this document, and I've run out of colours? Yes, that's it!" (Facilities Manager looks suspicious) "Ok. I'll get it for you." Tee hee. I was there for more than 4 years, so by the end they were very much used to me and my weird requests for stationery.

Anyway, at my current job, I get to order the stationery! You have no idea how excited I get when I look through the catalogue and write down the order numbers of what I want to get in. Most items are entirely superfluous to my "needs", but I just love the stuff!

Yesterday, I placed an order with Office Works for some ruled pads (and accidentally bought 4 lots of 10 pads instead of just 4 pads! Oops!), plastic pockets, binders, dividers, etc. Nothing too exciting. The delivery arrived later that day.

A big box and a little box.

I opened the big box to find what I thought were all of the items in there. And some of those air bag things for packing, so the box was hardly full to the brim or anything. I wondered what could possibly be in the other, smaller box.

I opened it up. I took out the air bags.

And there, lying in the bottom of the box was one piece of paper and one binder pocket. That's it. In that whole box!

As I said, it wasn't like the other box was so full you couldn't possibly fit one more binder pocket in there. Baffling!

Anyway, I just found that very amusing. I don't know why they didn't just put it in an envelope. Why a whole box for one very small, flat item?

Oh well, who cares. I've got new stationery to play with (including a "Daily Planner" pad! Yay! I love lists!)!

Foot, meet Mouth

So, the boy, William and I went to see Phantom of the Opera last night with his sister and his mother.

I hadn't seen it before, and I only knew the basic gist of the story (ghost haunting opera house, bad things happen). No details.

The female lead's name is Christine. I find this name not very melodious and a bit harsh sounding on stage.

William's mother asked me what I thought of the performance so far at intermission. I told her they could have found a prettier name than Christine.

I completely forgot her name is Christine.

So now I have to pretend that I was just "roasting" her and it was all a joke. Ugh.

I really wish I would think before I speak sometimes.

Welcome to the Third Reincarnation

So who won the bet? What was the general consensus for how many days I could stay away? You have to give me some credit - I lasted almost a week!

For now, this will be an open blog, but if I notice any sneaky people sniffing around, I will be changing it to Invite Only.

And to open, I shall tell you of the poor guy I encountered in Lincraft yesterday.

I was standing at the counter, paying for the 10 metres of lining I had bought for some Chinese silk I'd purchased to make a dress. A guy came up to the counter and asked the other attendant if they had any "stretchy fabric". She responded with lycra, spandex, etc and then asked him what he wanted to make. He said he was making a costume. She described the lycra and spandex and he said that wasn't what he was looking for. She then suggested stretchy fleece, like tracksuit material. He said no, he wasn't after that either. A girl behind me said, "You don't mean neoprene do you? Like wetsuit material?" and he just sort of looked very blank and said he didn't think so.

He then said that this material was on the inside of shorts and that you could stretch it out. The attendant had no answers and neither did the girl behind me. I was thinking to myself, "he couldn't possibly mean elastic, could he? He'd have to know what elastic was called!" I didn't say it to him though. He then said he would go and look around and see if he could find something similar.

He came back. With a packet of elastic.

The attendant and the girl behind me both let out, "Ohhh! Elastic!" at the same time. He then apologised and said he was just a guy and didn't know about such things. How can you not know the name for elastic? Surely he's bought underwear before? Most men's underwear says something about the elastic on the packet. How could someone live to the age of 25 (or thereabouts) and not know about elastic? Bizarre.

I left then, so I didn't get to find out exactly what sort of costume he was making, and where he thought he was going to get a piece of elastic big enough to make a whole costume out of. Or indeed, what sort of costume one would want to make entirely out of elastic!

*****
Driving home, I saw the following sign above a pub:

Meat
Katie-Lee ##
Saturday, 1 March.

I'm not sure Katie-Lee would appreciate the conotation that she is meat, and I'm pretty sure the pub is not clever enough to be eluding to Sheik Hilali's comments.