A mum has blasted her daughter’s school for making her remove false eyelashes and says she will tell her to keep wearing them even though it means facing isolation.
Angela Jackson is refusing to back down in the argument with Royal Wootton Bassett Academy over what she calls a “pathetic” policy.
She said her daughter Chelsea Silk, 14, was left in tears as she reportedly had to take the eyelashes off at school, having been previously warned that she could not wear them.
Angela, who has two other kids at the school and another that left last year, said that Chelsea has not been in trouble over anything else and denied the false eyelashes were a “health hazard”.
She said that the eyelashes didn't in anyway affect her ability to learn, and should be allowed by pupils if it means boosting their self-esteem.
She told the Swindon Advertiser: “The lashes do not impede my child’s ability to read, write or learn and I find it absolutely pathetic that the school has chosen the path of sanction which leads to exclusion above the right for my child to be in school being educated over a set of false eyelashes.”
The school has said that the eyelashes are against the uniform rules.
Angela continued: “I went in to pick her up and she was very upset because someone stood over at the basin until she took them off. I will not back down on this and she will keep going in to school wearing the eyelashes. It means that she will be in the isolation unit. She has never been in there before for anything and has never had a detention.”
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Angela said she is now worried that while her daughter is in isolation she will miss out on practical work ahead of her GCSEs.
The school’s uniform policy says that make-up should be kept at a minimum with no nail varnish or artificial nails - but the school website doesn’t specifically mention eyelashes.
Deputy head, Mari Roberts, has reportedly said that the school understands Angela does not agree with the rule but the majority of the “parent body” supports its stance.
