Our school's current hair colour policy states that students can only have their hair a 'natural' colour. Despite it being illegal to discriminate against hair colour (Equal Opportunity Act 2010), the school policy is steeped in appearance judgement, and discriminates against those who want to express themselves through alternative hair colour. Teachers are forced to waste valuable time reprimanding and threatening students who don't comply, and students feel their self-expression and creativity is stifled in this environment.

We, the undersigned students, supportive parents, teachers and community members, request that the Koo Wee Rup Secondary College Hair Colour Policy be revoked. We feel that the current policy contravenes the Department of Education's own guidelines around appearance policy:

'...is it reasonable by contemporary standards and does it avoid unnecessarily intruding on students’ rights in matters of personal appearance?' 

We believe that students should not be forced to conform to overtly conservative community standards (it’s 2015), and that the colour of their hair – natural or otherwise – has no bearing whatsoever on their ability to fully participate in all school activities, nor does it reflect poorly on the school’s image within the broader community. The decision to colour their hair or not should be made between parent and child, not the school. It should not be the right other parents to decide hair colour for kids other than their own.

From a former student: "Good people with good hair deserve to be treated with the respect they relentlessly offer! The majority of my most awful memories I have of the whole ordeal at high school stem from the oppression of students' individuality and self-expression. How is any young person expected to WANT to attend and WANT to expend the effort to do well when they feel that their identities are not respected in an institution which is meant to provide a safe and all-inclusive space?”

Please sign and share our petition so that we may enjoy our education free from harassment for something as petty as our hair colour of CHOICE!