hankyoreh

By Kim Min-kyoung
　　　
Students in Seoul schools will now be able to decide their own hair length, color and style after the promulgation of the Seoul student human rights ordinance on January 26. When Seoul Education Research & Information Institute conducted a survey of 387 middle and high school students in June of last year, 75.5% answered that restrictions on hair and clothing violated human rights. The concerns of teachers and parents may make it difficult to implement this part of the ordinance.
Some say such matters should be left for schools to deal with autonomously. “We cannot continue with hair regulations of the past, such as crew cuts, because the situation in each school is different. As there are demands from parents, individual schools should be able to decide autonomously upon hair-related rules according to their own situations,” said Kim Dong-seok, a spokesman for the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations. “This is not something to be universally permitted by an ordinance.”
But Bae Gyeong-nae, chair of the executive committee of the Seoul branch of the movement for a student human rights ordinance, responded, “From the perspective of personal liberty and freedom of expression, students’ freedom regarding their own hair should not be restricted in any way. If left to deliberation between teachers, students and parents, the power structure within schools makes it such that it is hard for students’ opinions to be reflected.”
The results of a survey of 3,778 teachers and 2,736 middle and high school students conducted by Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education in April last year show that 56.4% of teachers and 72.7% of students agreed with the proposition that “conflict with teachers over hair and clothing issues has decreased [since the human rights ordinance was implemented].” Gyeonggi Province’s student human rights ordinance abolished restrictions on hair length but allowed schools’ own rules to restrict dyeing and perms.
　
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