On the surface, it seemed a case of a silly teenager taking on his school authorities backed up by a barmy tribunal determined to interpret the law in a perverse way that defies common sense.

In fact, the case of David Knott – the Leaving Certificate student suspended from school for three months for having long hair who was awarded €3,500 for victimisation and discrimination – highlights all that is right about the equality tribunal and all that can be wrong with our schools.

Knott and his courageous mother Mary decided enough was enough when it came to the way the school principal and vice-principal at Dunmore Community School in Co Galway reacted to the young man's refusal to cut his hair. As such, they are an example of just why it is right for parents and students to stand up to unacceptable behaviour by those in power.

For the vice principal to taunt the young man with references to his "girl's hairstyle", saying he was "nothing but a trendsetter" and asking him if he "wanted to be a girl" was no way to treat a pupil who had grown his hair with his mother's permission and who attended school with it neatly tied back.

Nor, once the department of education had ruled in favour of Mary Knott and her son and they had gone to a barber to have it groomed and cut to the agreed collar length, was it in any way correct for the principal to call in a barber on his return to school to measure the teenager's hair and insist he cut off another inch.

The school's principal and vice-principal handled a simple disciplinary issue with astonishing sarcasm and lack of balance.

They deserved to be censured – and should be reprimanded equally strongly by the Department of Education.