Student blocked from wearing colander as 'religious headwear' hits back

An Auckland secondary school student who hit back at his college after he was banned from wearing a colander as a religious headdress believes he has gone too far.The Pakuranga College pupil was blocked from wearing a colander on his head and claimed staff had breached his human rights.The 15-year-old reportedly claimed he was a member of the Pastafarian religion - a movement started in the United States and which has reached New Zealand in the form of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.In the student's original social media post last week he said that the school allowed "other students to wear headwear" in their photos.


But the school refused to budge with the student, making the teen remove his colander.Principal Michael Williams said the situation had "been resolved amicably and happily", however the student refuted the claims saying there has been "no resolution whatsoever"."The school and my parents were pretty upset I took it to social media."I am still complaining to the Human Rights Commission to sort things out."Despite his strong stance against the colander ban, the student told the Herald he now believes he "went too far" with his original Facebook post.He revealed to the Herald that he was asked to delete his original Facebook post and agreed to do so.


A number of Kiwis have questioned the teen's motives behind his actions, with one asking if the complaint is "really worth it".But the student has stood firm, saying he's doing this to fight discrimination and to promote the equal rights of all religions in New Zealand."It's worth it because if I don't stand up for my rights then what's the point in having them?"I'm doing this to honor the hard work of people who fought for my rights, I'm doing this because I am a being discriminated and that's not OK."Pastafarians have fought hard to become a recognised religion and yet we still get treated like this."New Zealand is one of the most supportive countries in the world of pastafarianism yet this still occurs. All religions should get equal rights or they don't get any rights at all."

Pastafarianism is a social movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion.It is legally recognised as a religion in New Zealand and the Netherlands, where Pastafarian representatives have been authorised to celebrate weddings.The group was formed in 2005 as a protest against efforts in Kansas public schools to teach not only evolution but also "intelligent design" - the idea that the universe had a creator.

This kid is aware that flying spaghetti monster is just a condescending meme that got out of hand, right?

That is blasphemous. Apologise to our noodley lord.

My head's too big for hats or colanders.

Not to mention hollow.

This kid is aware that flying spaghetti monster is just a condescending meme that got out of hand, right?

Fair enough. If other people who believe in make-believe gods can wear their headdresses, why can't he?

He can. He just doesn't. Obviously no-one actually believes in pastafarianism.

I think religion in general is rather silly too, but these people are just annoying, and it's crazy that a joke group is actually able to get recognition as a religion.

Why? What makes it any worse the scientologists or Christianity? At least this one doesnt advocate genocide like the bible does quite frequently.
Besides that is literally the point of it to take the piss.

It's not necessarily 'worse' than the others, it's just not genuine. You could make an argument that it causes less harm than Christianity or scientology because it's not genuine.

I still can't cope with these smug, preening tossers thinking it's hilarious to mess everyone around by insisting that they be allowed to do something that everyone knows they don't believe in. It's not funny and it's not interesting. It's a totally expected, boring 'joke' that involves them in making a nuisance of themselves pretty much purely for the sake of it, and in doing so by being disingenuous.

Hmm I’m slightly ofended but only in the sense that this religion clearly is taking the piss out of my religions name yet is too ignorant to know it’s true name I am a rastafari yet it’s often misnamed rastafarianism a rather discriminative thing to do as my religion believes isms are a bad thing used to describe subjects in a negative manner so to misname it with something against its belief is against our religious belief the pastafarian is clearly a coined term from Rastafarian a discriminatory term and so takes the piss out of my religion and also is ignorant to my beliefs otherwise though go ahead atheists playing religious to fight for your rights I cannot see any problem with that