A SECONDARY SCHOOL student has been awarded €9,000 in compensation after a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) hearing found that he was the victim of gendered discrimination due to not being allowed to wear one stud earring. 

The case, which was decided earlier this month, heard that the boy had worn one stud earring to school. This was contrary to the school’s Code of Conduct, which stated that one stud earring in each ear were the only piercings allowed, the school’s representative argued. 

The complainant alleged that he was the victim of discrimination on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation. He sought to ground his case under these claims under the Equal Status Act.

The boy claimed that he was both directly discriminated against and indirectly, as a girl was more likely to wear an earring in each ear by choice. It was argued that “what appears a neutral provision is not”.

It was further alleged that he was instructed to get a second piercing in his other ear if he wished to wear his current piercing, or else to remove it during school hours or cover the stud with a plaster.

It was set out in the complainant’s submissions that the boy had been subjected to “public humiliation, left sitting in disgrace outside the Principal’s office, removed from his normal classes for long periods… denied the privilege of going down town with his peers during school lunchtime, denied access to a boy’s field trip and left to attend a girl’s field trip, threatened with after-school detention, had his mother shouted at…”, all arising from his lack of cooperation over the issue of the single stud earring.

The school rejected his submission and said that any other student, male or female, would have been sanctioned identically. It said that it was not aware of the student’s sexual orientation, claiming that the student’s case citing harassment as a result was therefore not relevant. 

The school said that many “famous men” including footballers and musicians wear stud earrings in both ears. 

“There appears to be a suggestion that the requirement to wear two earrings imputes gender fluidity. This allegation is made with absolutely no evidence whatsoever,” the school’s submission said.

It claimed that the case was simply the student refusing to abide by the Code of Conduct.

The WRC Adjudicating Officer Brian Dalton found that the student had been discriminated against on the basis on gender, but not on the basis of sexual orientation. The adjudicating officer ruled that the rule regarding earrings favours females over males.

The school was ordered to amend its rule to state that students are permitted to wear only one stud earring in each ear, or one earring in one ear. The school was ordered to pay €9,000 to the student, which is to be held by his mother until he turns 18-years-old.