A scandal erupted in a Kryvy Rih lyceum because of eighth-grader Yurii Demchenko’s hairstyle. The boy has grown a Cossack forelock, but the school administration has not liked it. The student has been ordered to cut his oseledets [Ukrainian name for such a hairstyle, literally “herring.” – Ed.] off, and threatened with expulsion from the lyceum should he disobey. The 14-year-old Demchenko has been fighting for his right to sport a Cossack forelock for quite some time. He said he had a new hairstyle done for patriotic reasons and could not imagine it sparking a conflict with his school. He recorded his principal’s threats on a mobile phone camera and posted the record on the Internet. Then, a real storm started, as the public came to the boy’s aid.
Demchenko’s mother Svitlana Demchenko, an associate professor at Kryvy Rih Pedagogical University, is also outraged as the lyceum’s administration never contacted her. She learned of the conflict from her son and immediately visited the school. Teachers explained that the boy’s hairstyle was not businesslike. They alleged that the lyceum’s statute prescribed certain requirements for the appearance of students, and all students had to comply with them.
Meanwhile, residents of Kryvy Rih have created a group on a social network to support Demchenko. Concerned citizens came to picket at the lyceum’s porch. They brought with them a student of a nearby school who had lived with a Cossack forelock since attending the first grade. He said that the patriotic hairstyle did not interfere with learning.
Influenced by media publications, the local prosecutor’s office filed a criminal case on charges of national dignity humiliation. Meanwhile, parents of other students are collecting signatures in defense of the lyceum’s administration.
Demchenko’s mother told us that teachers were now displaying a hypercritical attitude towards her son. However, the teenager shows Cossack character and has decided to never allow his Cossack forelock to be cut off. The mother supports her son: “It is his own image.” She said that Cossack genes had gone back to life in the boy. “He has one grandfather coming from the Kuban, the other from Cherkasy region,” she told us. “My son is interested in the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks, attends study group on the history of weapons and does shooting sports, having already reached the third junior level. I think that mastery of weapons is a necessary thing for a boy.” Demchenko is still unclear on his future profession, but he is already a famous person due to the Cossack forelock affair. “Cossacks of Ingulets district contacted him and invited my son to join them. He is likely to start service as a squire with the Cossack host next year,” the mother related. Cossacks from other regions sent their invitations, too. Demchenko-mother is now in Kyiv on a research trip, as she studies ancient Ukrainian literature. Exploiting the opportunity, she visited Maidan and met a local celebrity, Cossack Mykhailo Havryliuk, whose forelock was cut off by riot police during this winter’s events in Hrushevsky Street. This story is now known to almost every citizen of Ukraine, and is fairly well known abroad, too. “I told Havryliuk of my son, as they try to cut his forelock off, too. He conveyed his greetings and wished that my son stand his ground firmly, as behooves a true Cossack,” the schoolboy’s mother told us.
