Told there was no room at the school she and her parents wanted her to attend, 14-year-old Tarnia Porritt did not take the Inner London Education Authority’s “No” for an answer. She put on the uniform of the Malory Comprehensive School, Downham, Kent, walked in with her friends, and sat in on a lesson.
“No-one noticed me, so I went on to another lesson, and then another,” she said yesterday. She claimed to have attended the school for a month in all. “I have proved that there is enough room in the school for me. I must admit I was caught four times, but most of the time the teachers never gave me a second look. Twice when the teacher saw me I was allowed to stay until the end of the lesson, but on two occasions I was told to leave.”
A special staff meeting was held at the school on Wednesday to try to find out what had been happening. Teachers remembered discovering Tarnia in two lessons, and on two subsequent occasions finding her in the school and escorting her off the premises. Some of the staff who might have taught her left at Easter, but the conclusion was that it was “quite unlikely” that Tarnia had been in the school for as long as a month.
An ILEA spokesman said the Malory comprehensive was a popular school, with a waiting list. When the Porritts had arrived in the district they had been told there was no place available, but Tarnia had been offered one in another school near by.
Tarnia is now at home, but her parents are threatening to send her to the Malory school again on Monday. If she does arrive the ILEA says she will be refused admittance.
Her mother, Mrs Sheila Porritt said: “My husband and I are with Tarnia all the way. Why should she be condemned for wanting to learn?”
The ILEA spokesman said it was hoped that the parents would accept the place offered in the other school.
