Grammar haircut rule may become test case

The length of James Hunt’s blond hair may become a test of the extent of school independence if the Government pushes through a proposed shift of school powers.

The 13-year-old started at Auckland Grammar this week but was allowed to enrol only after his mother Heidi Hunt ticked a box stating he would abide by the school rules which state a student’s hair cannot touch his collar and “should not be long enough to be tied up in any form”.

The family held out against cutting his hair until the last possible minute, hoping that Grammar headmaster Tim O’Connor would let him keep it.

But he finally had it cut at 5pm on Tuesday, the evening before Grammar’s school year started on Wednesday.

The family believe a regional hub might overturn the rule.

James’ grandmother Anne Hunt, who has written books on legal issues, welcomed the proposal that regional hubs should “assume all the legal responsibilities and liabilities currently held by school boards of trustees”.

“What I am excited about with the school hubs is that the boards of trustees are losing some of their power to hubs that have got far more expertise in these issues,” she said.

The family was considering a legal challenge under the Bill of Rights Act.

A 2014 High Court judgment in the case of Napier schoolboy Lucan Battison said schools needed to consider “whether or not any hair rule would breach a student’s right to autonomy, individual dignity and his rights to freedom of expression affirmed by Section 14 of the NZ Bill of Rights Act”.

James has worn his hair long since he was a toddler in honour of his grandfather, Paul Hunt, a musician who was expelled from school for long hair and kept it long until he died, aged 55, the day before James was born. O’Connor told the Weekend

Herald school rules were “regularly canvassed, reviewed and discussed with our school community, who do support our approach”.

The chairman of the taskforce that proposed regional hubs, Bali Haque, did not see hubs involved in school rules: “We do not want the hubs to get into those sorts of issues because that is a school matter.”