The Star: September 14, 2017

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High school students win beard battle
• By Gabrielle Stuart
A BATTLE for beards at a
Canterbury high school could
open the door to rule changes
around facial hair at other
schools.
Lincoln High School students
have won a year-long campaign
for facial hair, with the school
board of trustees agreeing to
drop its clean shaven-only rule
as a trial.
It came after a survey of staff,
students and parents at the
school found many supported
allowing facial hair.
Secondary Principals’ Association
chairman Phil Holstein,
who is principal of Burnside
High School, said he expected
more Canterbury schools would
have their policies questioned
because of the trial at Lincoln.
“There has mostly been consistency
with uniforms, but once
you start varying from it more
schools start to follow,” he said.
A 16-year-old Hornby High
School student was suspended
two years ago for refusing to
shave. He chose to leave the
school and enrol in correspondence
school after the dispute.
Most Christchurch high
schools, including Hornby, still
have a clean shaven-only rule.
Hagley Community College
is an exception and has no dress
code.
Former Lincoln High School
student Andrew Hudson began
the campaign for beards last
year, putting a formal proposal
to the school board of trustees
last September.
He said it was about selfexpression.
“Many of the male students
who I discussed this with viewed
that the females at high school
had their own way of self-expression
by being allowed to wear
certain piercings, have their hair
styled in any way they wished, as
well as colouring it,” he said.
Board of trustees chairman
Adrian Paterson said the board
had not yet finalised the conditions
around the trial, and that
was set to happen at the next
board meeting.
He said the trial would run until
the end of next year, when the
SCHOOL RULES:
•Christ’s College: [Students] must be clean-shaven and
their hair and personal appearance must always be neat.
•Linwood College: Students at all levels must be clean
shaven.
•Hagley Community College: Beards allowed.
•Christchurch Boys’ High School: Boys are to be clean
shaven.
•Middleton Grange School: Boys are to be clean shaven.
•Cashmere High School: Male students at all levels must
be clean shaven.
•Hornby High School: Students must be clean shaven.
board would evaluate it again.
“We will look at how many
students take it on board, and
whether any issues crop up. The
question is will it affect their
learning, and obviously we
thought it shouldn’t, but we may
come across issues.”
Lincoln High School principal
Kathy Paterson said the survey
had shown opinions on facial
hair had been divided.
She would not release the survey
results, which she said were
still being worked on.
“I would prefer to keep the status
quo, but that’s my personal
view. We’ve got to be willing to
listen to the voice of students and
parents, and that’s what we’re
doing,” she said.
Hornby High School principal
Robin Sutton said his school
was open to changes, and had
recently made its uniform requirements
gender-neutral, after
a presentation by students.
But he said there were no plans
currently to change rules around
facial hair, because it impacted
the community perception of
students, he said.
“They make judgements based
on superficial things like what
students look like,” he said.
Linwood College principal
Richard Edmundson said students
regularly asked him about
the clean shaven rule, but he had
no plans to change it.
He said that was partly because
of the risk of bullying.
“It avoids kids saying I can
grow one and you can’t,” he said.
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