Pupils sent home for wearing red and white

The Guardian
Jun. 16, 2006

Six primary school children excited about this afternoon's England football match were sent home for wearing red and white to class.

Parents were left fuming after they were told their children could not join classes at Orchards primary school in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. It followed a similar incident yesterday when three youngsters were also ordered to go home and change.

Schools across the UK have been warning students not to take World Cup fever too far. Last week, children in Scotland were told that if they made offensive anti-English remarks during the World Cup they would be excluded from school.

Scottish teachers have been told to use powers of exclusion against pupils who "overstep the line" of traditional friendly rivalry and cause offence.

Nicola Whyatt, whose two sons were sent home from Orchards primary today, told the Eastern Daily Press newspaper: "These children have not been allowed in school, they have been told to change their tops or go home.

"I am furious. They are denying my children an education, because he happens to want to wear a football top in support of his country."

A spokesman from Cambridgeshire county council, Simon Cobby, said the school did not have a compulsory uniform policy, but the children had been sent home because they were dressed "inappropriately".

Mr Cobby said: "Some of them were wearing football boots with studs and shin pads. That is clearly inappropriate and potentially dangerous. The school does not have a uniform policy, but if the children choose not to wear uniform the school expects them to wear something appropriate. The children were asked to go home and get changed and then come back."

He added: "The school fully supports the World Cup and will be celebrating it next week."

However, some schools are prepared to bend the rules slightly to support England. Birches Head high school in Stoke-on-Trent does not allow flags or badges, but after protests from parents, some staff and children, its headteacher, Karen Healey, relaxed the ban for the World Cup period and has allowed the flag of St George to fly in school.

Related:
• Pupil banned for England haircut

Why are children punished for expressing their individuality? This may be the most important writing you'll ever read:
• The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher - By John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991

The Fraud of Public Schooling
John Taylor Gatto - Classrooms of the Heart 1991

• The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher - By John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991
What do i teach? "The fourth lesson I teach is emotional dependency. By stars and red checks, smiles and frowns, prizes, honors and disgraces I teach kids to surrender their will to the predestined chain of command. Rights may be granted or withheld by any authority without appeal, because rights do not exist inside a school -- not even the right of free speech, as the Supreme Court has ruled -- unless school authorities say they do. As a schoolteacher, I intervene in many personal decisions, issuing a pass for those I deem legitimate, or initiating a disciplinary confrontation for behavior that threatens my control. Individuality is constantly trying to assert itself among children and teenagers, so my judgments come thick and fast. Individuality is a contradiction of class theory, a curse to all systems of classification."