Cooranbong’s Avondale School issues ‘humiliating’ punishment for facial hair breach

Students’ parents have been left fuming after boys at Avondale Christian school were allegedly forced to shave with communal razors or be kicked out of school photo day.

Lincoln Smith, 15 was not allowed to participate in his school photos because of his moustache. Picture: Supplied.

Private school parents have been left fuming after boys at their regional NSW Christian school were allegedly forced to shave with communal razors or be kicked out of school photo day, amid a crackdown on their wispy teen moustaches.

Avondale School in the Lake Macquarie suburb of Cooranbong is facing fierce criticism from parents over what they claim to be a heavy-handed and sudden shift in enforcement of its high school uniform policy, which states “facial hair is not permitted”.

Male students are now being strapped up with fluorescent wristbands for violating the policy, which had gone unenforced for years, mother of two Shannon Smith said.

The issue first came to her attention in March after she received a ‘please explain’ from the school in relation to her 15-year-old son Lincoln’s facial hair, but came to a head earlier this month when the Year 10 student was excluded from school photos after refusing to shave.

Her eldest son, 17-year-old Cooper, complied when asked to use a senior male teacher’s personal trimmer, while other students shared disposable razors, Mrs Smith claimed.

Fifteen-year-old Lincoln Smith’s mum Shannon is furious that her sons were offered a male teacher’s own personal grooming equipment to shave. Picture: Supplied.

The months-long drama has been “harrowing” and “humiliating” she said, with Lincoln now also facing exclusion from sporting events over what his mum described as “a little bit of fluff on the top of his lip”.

“A child shouldn’t be forced into doing something that they’re not physically ready to do yet … especially when they’re pubescent,” she said.

Lincoln as he appeared on the school photo day he was excluded from. Picture: Supplied

An example of a wristband that students at Avondale School are forced to wear when they are deemed to have too much facial hair. Picture: Supplied

“It’s a hard enough time as it is, without having the pressure of the school saying ‘we don’t accept that it is okay for you to look like this, and you need to change yourself to be able to fit within a standard that we haven’t enforced in five years.’

“We’d just hoped that they would see sense, but there’s been no willingness to compromise at all on their part.”

The Seventh-day Adventist school has fewer than 1000 students from Kindergarten to Year 12, and charges senior students just under $9,300 a year.

Avondale School did not respond to The Daily Telegraph’s requests for comment, but in response to Mrs Smith’s emails, principal Debra Cooper wrote that “eligibility to take part in representative activities is contingent on adherence to (uniform) expectations”.

Avondale School is a low-fee independent Seventh-day Adventist school near Lake Macquarie. Picture: Supplied

“While we understand that not all students agree with every aspect of these guidelines, we are committed to applying them consistently and fairly,” she wrote.

Explicit restrictions on facial hair are common in private schools across the state, with the majority of uniform policies, such as those at Barker College in Hornsby and St Andrew’s Cathedral School in the Sydney CBD, requiring students to be “clean shaven”.

Others such as Blue Mountains Grammar School and Charlton Christian College in Fassifern are more lenient, allowing for moustaches and beards that are “kept short, groomed, neat and tidy”.

Barker College in Hornsby. The school requires students to be clean shaven, as do many private schools. Picture: David Swift

Enforcement varies widely, however, and the Avondale saga is far from the first time a school’s hair requirements have raised eyebrows among parents.

Embattled inner-west institution Newington College made headlines two years ago after marching boys down to the local barber to have their mullets shorn off, and Trinity deputy headmaster Bradley Barr in 2022 wrote: “It is not an infringement of your son’s human rights to ask him to trim his hair, or have a shave, and we expect that your son will comply as a gesture of respect … for the institution of Trinity Grammar School.”

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