By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

The appropriate length of students' hair has been a complicated question involving not only students and teachers but also the ideological tendencies of a specific period.

The debate was initially brought up after the government scrapped a rigid state guideline regarding hair length ― crew cuts for male students and short, bobbed hair for female students ― in January 1982.

But a recent dispute at a school in Incheon, reported by the state human rights agency, provides a snapshot of a society that's still divided over the issue.

The National Human Rights Commission said Thursday that cutting students' hair without their consent for "breaching" school guidelines on hair length is a violation of human rights, advising a secondary school in Incheon not to repeat a similar act.

The agency said, "Such a forcible change of hairstyle by school authorities is an act that infringes upon human rights."

The statement came after eight students at the school filed a petition with the commission last December, saying that they had their hair cut short by a teacher for violating a school guideline that sets the maximum length of bangs at five centimeters.

The school defended itself by saying the act in question was intended as a measure to keep its students away from entertainment outlets for adults in its vicinity by making them easily recognizable as students.

But the commission refuted the allegation, saying, "All types of acts aimed at changing the length of students' hair should be done with consent. If not, it violates human rights."

According to research in 2005 by the education ministry, the latest available, more than 90 percent of secondary schools here - 2,761 middle schools and 1,924 high schools - have a self-designed guideline on the matter. Of them, 32 middle schools and 44 high schools force students with hair exceeding the guideline to get a trim to meet the requirement, the ministry said.

In 2005, the human rights commission urged the ministry not to bother students no matter how long their hair is.

The restriction has been facing fierce resistance from students since the new millennium, as a growing number of students have been exposed to environments where freedom of expression is regarded as one of the highest values of human life.

In May 2006, more than 200 students staged a rally in central Seoul, calling for the complete scrapping of hair length guidelines, the first collective action by students over the issue.

Kim Sang-gon, chief educator of Gyeonggi Province, is currently pushing a bill aimed at abolishing all kinds of hair-related guidelines from schools in the province.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr