Teacher cuts pupil's hair, mum files police report

I went to a private junior high school in Taiwan. We had very specific rules when it comes to haircuts. Everyone needed to have short hair including girls. Hair length is checked pretty often and if yours is too long, not only you will get a mark on your record, your whole class/homeroom would get punished. We also get beat with a stick by the teacher if we get bad marks on a test. It's kind of a cultural thing I suppose.

If it was in the US the teacher would get sued and fired for sure.

Change "teacher" to "discipline master" and we'll see how things go... the missing in-betweens like calling the parent before the haircut is quite obviously a necessity though.

As a boy, if his hair isn't kept in check, and parents fail (VERY often) to do their part [wtp is a $60 haircut if it doesn't meet school rules??], then something has to be done. As a teacher though... I wouldn't be inclined to cut my students' hair... leave that to the discipline master or the principals if they want to set a precedence. And right before a major oral examination... that's not very wise either.

But honestly, if parents don't "educate" their children [to say the least], and if teachers are scared of getting sued or what-not just because of laying a whisker on the students, then how the hell are we going to educate the students? It's still a conundrum that we haven't found a sufficiently good solution to. Parents going to the police over such... childish issues... is just plain dumb -- lodging a complaint to the ministry is fine, because it's the right avenue, but wtp is the police going to do?? Charge the teacher over causing distress to the students? /facepalm

*edit* I don't envy the principals though... because they eventually get forced into this sort of... soft position. It will just become another vicious cycle until suspension kicks in, and suspension after repeated offences is not a win-win situation either. Where's the discipline we used to have?

Hadriel

how is asking you to get a neat haircut barbaric ? O_O

My hair is kept tidy. How is short equal to neat? That entire argument that males need short hair is just thinly veiled sexism.

Yeah, there's seriously nothing wrong with shaggy hair. Long hair gross but people have a right to wear their hair however they want. A school has no place deciding for anyone.

I'm gonna just chalk this up to cultural differences and not really condemn anyone here.

how is asking you to get a neat haircut barbaric ? O_O

Are you implying that it is impossible for males to have neat looking long hair?

My hair is kept tidy. How is short equal to neat? That entire argument that males need short hair is just thinly veiled sexism.

You are a fine example to men everywhere. Pride yourself.

Yeah, there's seriously nothing wrong with shaggy hair. Long hair gross but people have a right to wear their hair however they want. A school has no place deciding for anyone.

No, this is gross.

 Spoiler

This is not.

 Spoiler

This happened a couple of times to my buddies during Junior High in Mexico. Of course, they received warnings to get their haircut by next week, I was also warned a couple of times, too. The ones that didn't, were sent to get their haircut by the school staff. Also, girls (of course, guys too) weren't allowed to wear make-up or have their nails painted.

I'm gonna just chalk this up to cultural differences and not really condemn anyone here.

Agreed. From experience, schools in Mexico are stricter than ones in the US (Texas & Minnesota). I preferred the ones in Mexico, though.

You are a fine example to men everywhere. Pride yourself.

That's the first time I've heard that from anyone ever. My pessimism cannot handle positive attention ;_;

I keep mine in a brushed ponytail when I go out, usually. It's not really shaggy, just thick.

I went to a private junior high school in Taiwan. We had very specific rules when it comes to haircuts. Everyone needed to have short hair including girls. Hair length is checked pretty often and if yours is too long, not only you will get a mark on your record, your whole class/homeroom would get punished. We also get beat with a stick by the teacher if we get bad marks on a test. It's kind of a cultural thing I suppose.

If it was in the US the teacher would get sued and fired for sure.

That sounds absolutely terrible...

It's one thing for a parent to discipline their child, I got my share of the belt, but anyone outside of IMMEDIATE immediate family doing more than a slap on the wrist? It happened a few times that I heard of while I was in school, and all but one of those teachers were fired AND lost their licenses to teach. And the one that wasn't, a family member of the kid took it upon themselves and punished them personally, it was some red-headed peach when I was in third grade; a parent stormed into the building and knocked her out clean, it was the funniest thing I had ever seen up to that point in my life, it happened right in the hallway outside of my classroom while she was trying to get away from the parent. Though, later it turned out she cursed in class periodically and had come to class drunk a few times, so she got fired as well as an ass beating, I suppose.

I just remembered that in my Secondary School, we were all given a warning by the school administration that if we were unwilling to get a proper haircut, we would be sent for one by the school (we have to cough up the cash, of course). I think it actually did happen to some people, but this was of course a last resort used only on repeat offenders. I've never heard of any parents raising any complaints about it (their kids getting their hair cut) to the school either; seems that the parents of the students at my Secondary School were pretty mature about it all.

I get that rules are rules, but I think it's blatantly wrong to forcibly do things like that just because she believes she has the right to enforce that sort of thing.

here too, but some brat just couldnt take his ugliness(as if he wasnt already ugly enough) after the cut and came crying to mommy.... poor little brat, grow up.

How unnecessarily childish.

Are you implying that it is impossible for males to have neat looking long hair?

nope, but usually short hair is always neater even without styling so i guess thats why the schools prefer short hair. Especially since students are supposed to be in school by 6:45am, there is just no time to fix up their hair.

I get that rules are rules, but I think it's blatantly wrong to forcibly do things like that just because she believes she has the right to enforce that sort of thing.

in a seperate article the teacher clearly stated that she had given him a letter to pass to his parents about having to cut his hair short for the national exam. the mum then said that his son is dyslexic and is prone to forget things like this. ahahahaha nope. he's just a brat who thinks he can get away with it when he knows damn well its his own fault. And if you know your son is dyslexic, arent you supposed to regularly check his bag anyways ?

and to be completely honest, i would rather have a a nice haircut than be barred from a national exam that is deciding my future.

nope, but usually short hair is always neater even without styling so i guess thats why the schools prefer short hair. Especially since students are supposed to be in school by 6:45am, there is just no time to fix up their hair.

My parents woke me up at 5:30 every morning, and school was in at 7; bus got here at 6:15, that gave me plenty of time to do whatever. Not that I had very long hair at that point, I didn't start growing it until I was 13 or so, but the fact remains that there is always time and you shouldn't punish everyone just because of a few people. The same applies to absolutely everything in life, by the way.

in a seperate article the teacher clearly stated that she had given him a letter to pass to his parents about having to cut his hair short for the national exam. the mum then said that his son is dyslexic and is prone to forget things like this. ahahahaha nope. he's just a brat who thinks he can get away with it when he knows damn well its his own fault. And if you know your son is dyslexic, arent you supposed to regularly check his bag anyways ?

Laughing at someone's potential mental handicap, that's pretty damn classy; I could learn a thing or two about tact from you!

and to be completely honest, i would rather have a a nice haircut than be barred from a national exam that is deciding my future.

You should have a bit more respect for your own body.

My parents woke me up at 5:30 every morning, and school was in at 7; bus got here at 6:15, that gave me plenty of time to do whatever. Not that I had very long hair at that point, I didn't start growing it until I was 13 or so, but the fact remains that there is always time and you shouldn't punish everyone just because of a few people. The same applies to absolutely everything in life, by the way.


Laughing at someone's potential mental handicap, that's pretty damn classy; I could learn a thing or two about tact from you!



You should have a bit more respect for your own body.

1. not everyone is like you
2. the mother could very well make it up to cover her embarrassed ass.
3. i respect it by being neat and tidy and respecting school rules no matter how absurd it is.

Yeah, guilty until proven innocent is a great system.

And by the way, it doesn't matter if not everyone is like me, the many should not be punished for the actions of the few NO MATTER WHAT. I don't care what it's in reference to; someone bringing toothpaste to school and squirting it all over the teacher's seat or terrorists commandeering some planes and crashing them into the WTC, the few should be punished for their actions and "preventative measures" that demean the intellect of the many and don't really even affect the few until it reaches the point that nobody can sneeze without being arrested should never, ever, ever be used, under any circumstances whatsoever.

It's just hair, it'll grow back.

Some need to keep in mind that Asian cultures prefer to have economic welfare rather than political and civil freedoms.
Arguing against them is rather pointless because they've proven that for them it works...kinda.
Other than that, it's interesting to see the different approaches and how extreme some of the posts in this thread are.

@Flonne: I know where you are coming from, but trust me, we have seen enough of these situations to know that the possibility of an untrue dyslexic case is so large we cannot give them the benefit of the doubt. Even better - we (not me I'm a good kid generally, but many of the people around me) ask our parents (when we were young) to write letters to cover our asses e.g. repeatedly late for school, not handing in work etc. Dyslexia is but one of the many reasons I have seen, on top of things like faking external involvements, church committments blah blah. If I even may, I'd like to ask for a medical proof of dyslexia before believing that the student is dyslexic. This should be the way to tackle the situation, not to blindly buy or trash that statement of mental impairment (of course while waiting for the letter or a reply from the parent, there should still be some leeway!).

That said... where's the proof of the letter that the teacher supposedly gave the student? Still, cutting the hair before informing the parents = no go.

*edit* Chinese has a saying: 杀一儆百: punish/kill one and send a message to all others -- lots of institutions use this method (not just the Chinese obviously). Whether the ends justify the means, it's up in the air. We've not taken it to the [relative] extreme yet either so don't make it sound like no one can sneeze without getting shot. */edit*

Hadriel

I'm gonna just chalk this up to cultural differences and not really condemn anyone here.

Small interjection. Just because something is part of someone's culture doesn't mean it should be free from condemnation. Long hair at school is as inconsequential as an untucked shirt.

What has dylexia got to do with failing to give notes to parents?
Dyslexia means difficulty reading, it does not mean being disorganized or forgetful.

What has dylexia got to do with failing to give notes to parents?
Dyslexia means difficulty reading, it does not mean being disorganized or forgetful.

That's what I was thinking too. Dyslexia is no excuse for the kid ignoring the warning and not passing it to his parents, it's the same thing as hiding report cards I guess. I think that's what [MENTION=2935]DeanNim[/MENTION] was laughing at, not the disability, it's the fact that they are using a pitiful excuse to try and shift the blame entirely to the school.

I'm sure the kid will have gotten verbal warnings too before they got a written complaint, and Dyslexia doesn't affect hearing.