The South African school which had been accused of discriminating against black girls and encouraging racist hair policies leading to it being scrutinized was ordered to suspend its hairstyle policy and change it’s rules.

Students were being forced to straighten their hair after being called monkeys by teachers for wearing Afro that was banned. According to reports, some teachers told the student with Afros that they either looked like monkeys or had nests on top of their heads.

This led to the school being given 21 days to reconsider its rules specifically concerning black student’s hair on Tuesday.

In a statement, the ministry of education said the learners felt that they were not being allowed to wear black hairstyles like Afro since the school policy limited hairstyle length.

It further said that the school’s clause dealing with hairstyles be suspended in the meantime until the schools code of conduct was reviewed. The rules were later suspended after talks between the Provincial Education Minister, the senior staff, and the pupils.

The black students proudly wore their Afros and braids over the weekend as they protested outside the school.

One pupil said that they wanted to show that they were tired of all the bigotry and racism that they had been facing in school.

The school was also criticized by the Ministry of Education for involving armed security guards and the police in dealing with the protesters.

The pupils also said it was odd since they had never had security at assembly before. The protesters grabbed international attention with the hashtag #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh trending all over.

Historically, the school was an all white school that started admitting black students in 1994 when the apartheid ended in South Africa.

Source: