A mum is furious after her teenage daughter was punished for leaving class to visit the toilet while on her period.
Her 15-year-old daughter, who has not been named, was in class at Valley Park School in Maidstone, Kent.
When she stood up to use the toilet she was told to “sit back down” by her teacher, according to the Metro.
She left anyway, and was put into “seclusion” for the rest of the day as a punishment
When her mum, also not named, rang the school a member of staff told her the school has a strict policy about students leaving class and that each teacher has to make an “individual judgement”.
Her mum said: “When my daughter first told me what happened I thought, ‘There’s no way you’d get put into seclusion for just asking to go to the toilet’, but I got the same story from my daughter as I did the teacher.
“She didn’t want to go to school at all the next day."
She added: “I’ve never been called about her behaviour before and she has never been in trouble, so I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
The mum spoke to the head of Year 10 and asked her whether she understood why the student had left the classroom as an adult would not have "stood there for the whole hour lesson" is they were in the same situation.
Margaret Hutchinson, headteacher at Valley Park School, said the school would “never deny any student access to our bathroom facilities”.
“But we do ask that students make every effort to do this during break and lunch time to minimise disruption to lessons,” she added.
She said in this case the student was asked to wait because the class had only just returned from break.
Instead the student left the classroom without permission and the mum and daughter have been informed about the school's rationale for the seclusion.
Mrs Hutchinson added it was because the student had shown "disrespect' by leaving the classroom.
