Instead, he was restricted to the sick bay at the school office, attending most classes virtually via a tablet computer.
“I felt distressed. The only chance I had to see my schoolmates was when I went to the toilet,” he said.
Although he was allowed back to class while keeping his ponytail in July last year, Oscar, who has autism spectrum disorder, said the punishment further weakened his social abilities.
He is one of two Hong Kong students who are known to have complained to the city’s equality watchdog, saying their schools’ hair rules for boys amounted to sex discrimination.
Both schools, like many others in Hong Kong, insist that boys’ hair should not fall below their eyebrows or the top of their shirt collar.
After complaining to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in May last year, Oscar asked his father to apply for legal aid on his behalf to initiate a civil lawsuit against the school, but their application failed.
On Friday, the High Court dismissed their appeal at a closed-door hearing.
Oscar told the Post outside the court that the judge said legal aid efforts should not duplicate potential legal action by the EOC, which was still investigating.
In the other case, Nathan Lam Chak-chun, 16, complained to the EOC last month against Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Wong Fut Nam College, a subsidised school in Kowloon Tong, where he is in Form Five.
Claiming to have gender dysphoria – a mismatch between sex assigned at birth and gender – Nathan, who prefers to be referred to by the pronouns “she” and “her”, revealed her unhappiness with the school rule in an Instagram video post in mid-July.
Hong Kong teen challenging school’s long hair ban reaches out to equality watchdog
Nathan argued that the school’s long hair ban for male students was “unreasonable and outdated” and violated the Sex Discrimination Ordinance. She was forced by the school to have a hair cut, and now hoped to have the rule abolished.
The post attracted 680,000 views in three weeks and prompted about 50 civil groups to sign a joint petition supporting her complaint as of Friday.
Nathan said she was supposed to have a first mediation meeting with school representatives on Wednesday under an arrangement by the EOC, but the principal called it off, saying more legal advice was needed.
Both students said their actions were inspired by former opposition lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, who took legal action against the prison authorities for shearing his shoulder-length locks when he was imprisoned in 2014.
At the end of his six-year legal battle, the city’s top court ruled in 2020 that having different hair rules for male and female inmates amounted to sex discrimination.
Prison of gender norms keeps schools from rethinking dress-code rules
Oscar argued that the school rule was illogical for assuming that a better ethos would be built if boys kept their hair short. He said such stereotyping did more harm than good by ignoring students’ need to develop their self confidence through their choice of hairstyle.
The Post obtained a written submission by Oscar’s school to the EOC, in which it said it had no plans to “casually change” the code before the probe result was out.
It said Oscar’s violation of the rule made it difficult to teach students to abide by the campus code of conduct, and the extra paperwork over his complaint had “piled pressure” on teachers.
“The restriction on the hairstyle of male students does all good but no harm, nor will it greatly inconvenience them in their daily lives, health and personal hygiene. It meets the expectations of the general public for the image of male students, and helps the school build the good ethos of the school,” it said.
Contacted by the Post, the school said it had nothing to add and wished to “avoid affecting the work of the EOC”.
A spokesman for the equality watchdog said it would not disclose details of individual cases, adding that the average time spent on each complaint was 100 days.
Among those supporting the students’ action against the hair rule for boys was Liam Mak Wai-hon, 21, president of Quark, a support group for transgender youths.
He said the punishment meted to Oscar reflected the conservative and homophobic culture in some Hong Kong schools.
Out of about 20 youths who sought Quark’s help over their schools’ appearance codes, Mak said, only one succeeded in persuading a school to let the student come in sportswear instead of a dress.
A trans man himself, Mak said he experienced gender incongruence as a child and began feeling distressed when made to wear dresses and keep long hair.
When he was in Form Four, he persuaded his school, CCC Chuen Yuen College, to allow him to wear trousers.
“At least part of the incongruence of my appearance was eased. I no longer wanted to rush home to take off my dress after school,” he said.
The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong interviewed 8,343 students last year and found that 4 per cent of females and 2 per cent of males said the sex they were assigned at birth did not reflect their gender experience.
Diana Kwok Kan, a scholar specialising in gender studies at Education University, said sexual prejudices in local schools were often associated with the religious background of schools’ sponsoring bodies and their social service providers.
She said some Christian organisations had played a leading role in opposing the passage of laws to protect students from discrimination.
Outside the court on Friday, Oscar vowed to continue his legal fight to change his school’s rule.
He said he would be consulting lawyers and would initiate a lawsuit himself after he turned 18 next March, if the EOC findings were unfavourable.
As they left, his father told him: “Perhaps there’s no such thing as complete equality.”
Oscar replied: “Breaking gender stereotypes takes time.”
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