Students are being suspended in schools around the State for wearing their hair long and for having their ears and noses pierced, secondary students claimed yesterday.
The Union of Secondary Students (USS), which was born out of the teachers' strike two years ago, said schools were operating out-of-date dress codes and uniform policies which discriminated against certain students.
The group said students were trying to express their individuality by wearing nose rings or their hair long, but schools were clamping down on individual students, particularly since the start of this school year.
Already, they said, several students had been suspended for wearing their hair long, while some female students had been suspended for wearing trousers rather than a skirt.
The USS is to take up the issue with the Department of Education. It claims there is no common policy among schools and what is acceptable in one may be outlawed in another.
They also claim that within individual schools sanctions are not applied equally. However, schools have defended their position. Mr George O'Callaghan, who represents the managers of 400 voluntary secondary schools, said all schools had codes of behaviour, and if students breached the codes, sanctions had to be imposed.
He said many schools were looking at the issue of girls wearing trousers, but the wearing of nose rings and long hair on boys was likely to remain taboo.
Schools required pupils to be neat and tidy, and that was why such things were outlawed, he said. He added that schools were not against boys wearing their hair long as such. It was often more an issue of the hair being untidy and unkempt.
Schools acting in loco parentis were allowed to impose sanctions on pupils who did not obey the rules. However, Ms Emer Ní Chuagain, a spokeswoman for USS, said schools refused to allow female students to wear trousers, which was a violation of students' rights as members of Irish society.
"It is illegal for an employer to implement policies that demand differential treatment in the work place between male and females. Similar actions should be taken to ensure these laws apply to everyone in the country," she said.
"Different sets of rules have been implemented in relation to gender. Male students have been told that long hair is forbidden, but perfectly acceptable on females. Similar happenings in relation to ear-piercing constantly occur. What message are schools sending to students?"