Teenager refuses to sit exam after haircut ban

A mother of a 15-year-old boy whose school refused to let him sit the Junior Certificate due to his haircut today said he was left too upset to complete the exams.

Tullamore College in Co Offaly refused to allow three boys, including Enda Carroll, 15, to sit their exams at the school’s examination centre as their short, blade-one haircuts broke the dress rules.

The three were given the option of finishing the rest of their Junior Certificate exams in a centre at a school in Clara, which is 12 kilometres from the secondary school in Tullamore.

Enda claimed he should be allowed to sit them at Tullamore College. He has not sat any exams today and will now have to re-sit the Junior Certificate next summer.

Pamela Carroll, the mother of the 15-year-old, said: “I want Enda to do his Junior Cert. because he is a good kid and he deserves the best. If he was out roaming the streets and taking drugs and one thing and another, yes, I would understand, but over a haircut?

“It is not fair. I mean maybe he (the principal) could have called them yesterday and given out to them, okay, but still let them complete their Junior Cert.”

Ms Carroll said the student was very conscious of his appearance and has worn his hair in the same short style since national school.

The State Examinations Commission has said it was satisfied arrangements were made available for the students to sit the exams and described it as a local issue. A spokeswoman said rules of dress for exam candidates was a matter for school authorities.

Ms Carroll said her son was very upset last night and did not want to travel to Clara to complete the exams and leave his friends in Tullamore.

The mother said: “If he was in jail he would be allowed sit his exams in jail.

“I begged him to go and he said no. He wasn’t going. He was going to try and repeat third year next year.

She told RTÉ Radio: “In all fairness, he said to me: why should he go to Clara? He didn’t do anything wrong. It is only a haircut.

“He has had his hair like that since he was in national school. He does get suspended up and down over his hair for a day here, a day there, but Enda is very particular of himself. He is not a bold kid or anything like that. He just takes good care of his appearance.”

Ms Carroll said she had complained to the principal on a previous occasion that he was singling her son out when many students had the same haircut.

“Sometimes he’ll suspend him and other times he doesn’t pass any remark on him,” the mother said.

Ms Carroll said yesterday morning as the teenager went in to sit his English paper he was informed by the school’s principal that he would be allowed sit that exam but would have to complete the rest in Clara.

She said he was then too upset to take the exams.