Schools’ policy on piercings being questioned

A Portales resident will speak before the Portales School Board on Monday advocating for a  change to the dress code of Portales Municipal Schools.

Nkoshe Seales, of Portales, will address the board about changing the dress code policy for body piercing.

Seales was invited to speak before the board in the public comments portion of the meeting by Portales School Superintendent Randy Fowler.

Seales is seeking the change on behalf of her daughter, 13-year-old Kerra Seales an eighth grade student at Portales Middle School.

On the second day of school Seales said that her daughter was sent to In School Detention (ISD) for having a clear retainer in a lip piercing.

“My daughter had this same problem last year,” Seales said. “She was placed in ISD several times because of the piercing.”

Seales has since started a petition calling for the change of the dress code which she said 100 people have signed.

The change that Seales would like to have made to the policy is to allow the student to wear the clear retainer.

There are students in high school with eyebrow, lip and belly button piercing with colored ends and bars that never get ISD, Seales said.

“I just want the policy to be fair across the board for all the students,” Seales said.

The current Portales School’s dress code policy for piercing states, that no student shall wear nose rings or nose studs or any type of visible body piercing accessory with the exception of ear rings in the ear.

The teachers and principals are doing their best to follow policy set forth by the board to the best of their ability, Fowler said.

We have asked for Mrs. Seales to speak before the board and any change to the dress code has to be made by the board, Fowler said.