As punishment, teachers in Thailand give mass haircuts: Why has it evoked protests?

When it comes to enforcing adherence to school rules, teachers in schools can often go to very extreme lengths.

A similar incident has come to light in Thailand where a teacher is being investigated for punishing more than 100 students by cutting their hair during the morning assembly on 7 February, according to Bangkok Post.

The incident received massive backlash from the Thai people, with the Education Ministry launching a probe into the matter.

After the video went viral on social media, activists throughout the nation have also demanded more explicit guidance and enforcement to end the use of humiliating punishment haircuts in schools.

Let’s take a closer look at the matter.

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Thai teacher gives ‘ugly’ haircut to students

A video of the disturbing incident was shared by Bad Student, a Facebook group that advocates for student rights.

In the video, the male teacher can be seen cutting the students’ hair haphazardly with a pair of scissors.

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— แล้วแต่ (@kuyraiwaasas) February 7, 2023

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Several pictures also surfaced on the internet showing piles of hair left behind on the assembly ground.

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— แล้วแต่ (@kuyraiwaasas) February 7, 2023

Numerous Thai people expressed their anger at the teacher’s action on the post, with one user asking, “What right do you have to cut someone else’s hair? Are you a teacher? Seriously, how did you end up being a teacher?" according to Singapore-based website, AsiaOne.

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The haircut punishment

According to The Guardian, the Thai military authorities imposed strict haircut rules in the 1970s.

For decades, a strict dress code prescribed army-style crew cuts for male students and bob haircuts no longer than the earlobes for female students.

Teachers would often allow students to cut their hair for refusing to follow the rules.

These rules were relaxed in the spring of 2020 by the Ministry of Education, however, many schools ignored the instructions and continued to follow the old norms.

Last month, the ministry again overturned its regulations and said that schools could instead create their own policy.

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‘Stop the haircut penalties’, say activists

To end the practice of humiliating punishment haircuts in schools, activists in Thailand have urged for clearer guidelines and enforcement.

In response to the government’s decision to overturn the policy, young activists claimed that this is too ambiguous and unlikely to result in change.

According to The Guardian, Laponpat Wangpaisit, also known as Min, who formed the organisation Bad Student, said, “The result is that it gives the full freedom to the schools and schools can do anything without consequence.”

Laponpat added that the group receives complaints relating to three or four schools in a week where teachers have chopped students’ hair. When teachers often conduct inspections, at the beginning of each month and the beginning of each semester, reports are at their pinnacle.

He said, “We need to eliminate any rules on hairstyles once and for all,” adding that hair did not have any impact on learning.

“It’s (about) the meaning of being a human – that we have full rights over our own body and this is just a starting conversation for everything else, like freedom of speech, human rights and so on,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.

Probe launched

According to Bangkok Post, Thailand’s Education Minister Trinuch Thienthong has ordered state agencies to launch a probe into the teacher and the director of the school in Bung Sam Phan district in north-central Thailand.

The report quoted Trinuch as saying that using haircuts as a punishment is inappropriate and will not be tolerated. She added that the ministry had already lifted regulations on hairstyles for both males and females in 2020.

The pair will face disciplinary action if their actions are proven wrong, she added.

According to the outlet, she asserted that the ministry is preparing to draft a hairstyle policy for students in which they may wear their hair long or short. Schools will be given the freedom to come up with hairstyle measures suitable for their students.

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Thai schools barred from cutting students’ hair

According to The Strait Times, the education ministry relaxed the rules to allow both male and female students to wear their long or short hair after a Thai mother lashed out at teachers at Yang Chum Noi Phitthayakhom School in Si Sa Ket province in 2020 after they chopped off her daughter’s hair in front of her classmates to discipline her for breaking the hair length restriction.

The mother said that rather than humiliating her daughter, the school ought to have first spoken to her.

According to Associated Press, the ministry affirmed the right of school authorities to punish violators of newly liberalized hair length rules, but only with established measures that do not include haircuts.

Acceptable punishments include warnings, probation, demerits and training activities, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

In May, the ministry issued revised regulations on student hairstyles, easing decades-old rules that male students had to maintain military-style crew cuts and females could have bobs falling no lower than the bottom of their ears.

The new rules will not see a thousand hairstyles bloom. Boys are now allowed hair on the back and sides of their heads that must stop at the base of the neck, while girls can have long hair if it is neat and tidy, but not permed or dyed.

With inputs from agencies

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