Scotch Reports Issue 174 (April 2019)

“WHAT DO WE WANT? …
LONG HAIR … WHEN DO WE
WANT IT? … NOW!”
AS THE END OF LUNCH BELL
RANG, THE HEADMASTER TRIED
TO NEGOTIATE A QUIET RETURN
TO LESSONS BUT WITHOUT
CONCEDING A CENTIMETRE
OF HAIR LENGTH, THE PICKET
LINE HELD FIRM.
Boys’ hair was getting progressively longer,
some down to the mid-back (the rules
allowed only collar length). Conservative
teachers and parents dug in and tried
to enforce the rules, but the sound of
rebellion was growing louder, and by mid
1972, the call to arms went out. There
was to be a ‘hair strike’. All students were
to assemble on the lawns outside the
Headmaster’s office at the designated
lunch time and not go back to class until
the demand for unrestricted long hair
was met. Sixty or more joined the protest
chanting:
“What do we want? … Long hair … When do
we want it? … NOW!”
As the end of lunch bell rang, the
Headmaster tried to negotiate a quiet
return to lessons but without conceding a
centimetre of hair length, the picket line
held firm.
The chanting continued.
History teacher Peter Read, now without
an afternoon class because they were all at
the strike, barricaded himself in the staff
common room and came up with the nowimmortal
quote, “Don’t shoot until you
see the whites of their pimples.”
By 3.00pm, resolve was weakening, and
students slowly drifted back to lessons.
Some were not allowed into class by
teachers shocked at such rebellious
conduct. By the end of the school day
there was another appearance from
the Head. If those remaining dispersed,
he pledged to discuss the matter with
student leaders, but couldn’t promise
any change.
A few more drifted off claiming victory,
but the true believers knew this was
an ambit position without substance
and regrouped to the lawns of the
Headmasters house, where a small tent
city was set up ready for an all-night
vigil until demands were met. As I recall,
Nick Gribble was the last to abandon his
tent and go home in the early evening,
deflated but not defeated.
The protest was not in vain. Within days
a staff and student Hair Committee
was formed, and a set of rules and
regulations agreed upon which would
allow long hair provided it was clean,
neat and tidy. The committee was given
powers to send offending students to the
Mitcham barber, a power it used on several
occasions.
This was just one of the many examples
of student activism being tolerated, if not
necessarily encouraged, by the Scotch of
the 70s. It gave some of us a voice to our
ideas and our views as we emerged to take
our place in the world beyond school, but it
also taught us lessons in mutual respect for
difference and importantly that freedom,
rights and causes come with responsibility.
ANDREW SAIES (’74)
7