Parents accuse school of discrimination for banning son from wearing earrings

The parents of a 12-year-old boy say their son has been banned from wearing earrings to school because he is not a girl.

Luca Soiland-Mills, a pupil at Gozo College in Victoria, was told to remove his studs and warned that if he put them on again, they would be confiscated, according to his mother.

The young boy's experience has prompted Education Minister Evarist Bartolo to investigate updating a general school policy on piercings.  

Cathrin Soiland-Mills claims that during the first week back at school after the holidays, a teacher told Luca to take out his earrings and said that only girls wear them. 

He went home upset and feeling that his gender was being questioned. 

[attach id=773677 size="medium" align="left" type="image"]The banned earring. [/attach]

Ms Soiland-Mills claims that despite a school policy against piercings, girls are allowed to wear earrings, while boys are not.

She has written to the school head Tereza Camilleri to complain that the move breaches Malta's equality laws.

“They can’t teach children all about equality and to embrace everyone for who they are, and then turn around and tell them you can’t wear two diamond studs because you have a penis while...