The right of a student and a teacher to an individual appearance

An individual appearance (image) in a broad sense includes appearance, figure, physical abilities, clothing, that is, the totality of such information about a person that can be obtained without resorting to specific examinations. The positive content of the subjective right to individual appearance consists of the authority to independently determine and use an individual appearance, to dispose an image. Legal statuses of the student and the teacher make authority and limits of implementation and ways to protect the right to an individual appearance more specific. Assessing the legitimacy of setting appearance requirements, the author draws attention to the requirements for clothing and other elements of appearance and the requirements applied to the procedure of decision-making. The Federal Law on Education does not provide for restricting such elements of students’ appearance as hair, makeup, tattoos, piercing, jewelry. Therefore, such restrictions concerning the right to individual appearance established by educational organizations are allowed only if they have been passed in compliance with the rules of adoption of local acts of educational organizations. The article provides a solution to the situation when the draft act of the educational organization concerning students’ appearance is not equally evaluated by the сouncil of students, сouncil of parents, a representative body of employees of this organization and (or) students. Under the Model Code of Professional Ethics of Teachers, general requirements for the appearance of the teacher are advisory in nature. Therefore, if the employee violates moral norms, then moral rather than legal sanctions should be applied. The question arises whether it is possible to evaluate certain appearance of the teacher as an immoral offense also when the teacher is out of work. The article substantiates that it is necessary to establish different legal consequences of immoral offenses committed by the teacher out of work taking into account the form of fault. If the teacher commits an immoral offense out of work and informs an indefinite number of people about it, then we deal with a conscious promotion of his or her conduct, his own assessment of his or her conduct as permissible, while the society (a part of the society) evaluates such behavior as immoral. In the above cases, it is justified to apply measures provided for under labor legislation. If the teacher commits an immoral act out of work and this becomes known accidentally while the teacher is unaware of the fact of disclosure and sometimes when the disclosure takes place against his will, the application of measures of labor legislation regulating dismissal is questionable. In this regard, it is proposed to amend the provisions of the Labor Code concerning consequences of immoral misconduct of the teacher.