Cesar Arellano Garcia
The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 19, 2024, p. 10
The First District Court in the state of Durango ordered school directors, teaching, administrative and security staff, as well as students of a secondary school, to respect the free choice and expression of a teenager regarding his physical appearance as an external manifestation of his religious freedom and not to interfere in that exercise.
The Federal Judicial Council (CJF) reported that Judge Iván Francisco Rodríguez Zamarripa instructed that the necessary measures be taken to generate an adequate school environment and protect the complainant against abuse and harassment by the institution’s staff or other students. This was in response to the school authorities’ request that the teenager cut his hair, which the judge considered an attack on his right to the free development of his personality, as well as his freedom of expression and religion.
The teenager, through his mother, filed an amparo suit against the actions of the school’s director and vice-director when he was intimidated into cutting his hair. However, the complainant said that keeping his hair long represents an expression of his devotion and spiritual commitment, and therefore it is an external manifestation of the exercise of his right to religious freedom.
The district judge found that the decision on the matter involved weighing up various fundamental rights: the right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to free development of personality, freedom of expression and the right to religious freedom.
He explained that Considering that the exercise of the right to the free development of personality includes the self-determination of the person to choose according to his will, among other things, his physical appearance, in accordance with his life plan and the way he wants to project himself before others, and on the basis that the right to freedom of expression of thoughts, opinions or ideas allows the person to manifest those aspects of his individuality by any means, it is reasonable to admit that the use of long hair in men constitutes a form of exercise of both rights.
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He also stated that the constitutional protection of such rights, as it relates to the choice of physical appearance and the way of projecting oneself to others, Of course, it covers the different contexts in which the person is found or develops, among them, the school space and environment in which, as a general rule, school directors, teaching, administrative and security staff, as well as students, are required to respect the free decision and free expression of the person regarding their physical appearance and not interfere in that exercise, much less condition the fundamental right to education by denying a student access to the educational institution for wearing long hair.
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