Students demand haircut ban

South Korean high school students have launched a website to campaign against compulsory short haircuts.

The Korean Times said the 'Don't Cut' site was visited by up to 100,000 users daily and about 50,000 had signed a petition to the government asking them to chop the crop.

We are not dolls

Student Kim Hyon-jong

It said such figures were unprecedented for a single issue website in the country.

The Times report said the custom of restricting students' hair length in order to instil discipline dated back to Japanese colonial times.

Teachers and parents have also e-mailed the website to support the campaign to abolish the practice.

Some teachers such as myself agree. But there are still many others who think the old way is best

Teacher Han Myong-shin

One 36-year-old woman wrote in to recall her high school days.

"A teacher would suddenly appear with a pair of scissors at the weekly morning meeting on school grounds. The girls would cry in horror, knowing their hair would be cut off," Yang Kyong-suk said.

"Twenty years later, I still see the same kind of things going on.''

Petition

One schoolgirl, Kim Hyon-jong, complained that female students were treated like dolls.

She said it was ironic that they were made to look identical when they were taught to respect individuality.

It was you teachers who taught us respect for individuality

Student Kim Hyon-jong

In an online petition sent to the Education Ministry, the students said the compulsory haircuts, known as tubal chehan in Korean, deprived them of their dignity.

They argued that students should be able to make their own decisions about their appearance and that such freedom would not lead to a rise in juvenile delinquency, as some educators claimed.

However, education officials said they could not force schools to follow a single guideline on the issue.

"We hope that students and teachers sit together to discuss the matter in order to come to a mutually satisfying solution,'' said Shin Hyon-chul of the ministry's school policy section.

The students will hold a forum with officials and teachers next week, the Korean Times said.