UK: School Bans Children From Wearing Wrist-Bands in Honor of Lee Rigby – Because ‘It Could Cause Offence’

Daily Mail
March 14, 2014

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Tracy Tew was shocked when her son Charlie was put on a report card after he refused to take off the charity rubber bracelet sold to honor injured soldiers. Tracey said ‘When the teacher said she was worried it was going to offend people, I thought it was disgusting. Our family are up in arms’

A teacher allegedly ordered a 10-year-old boy to take off his Help for Heroes wristband because it could cause offence.

Tracy Tew was shocked when her son Charlie was put on a report card at Maldon Primary School in Essex after he refused to take off the charity rubber bracelet sold to honour injured soldiers.

Charlie wears the wristband – bought at the Colchester Military Festival – in honour of murdered solider Lee Rigby and service personnel in his family, including his great-granddad and uncle.

Mrs Tew, 38, a domestic service assistant at a hospital, said: ‘We are really proud of Charlie for sticking to his guns. He wanted to keep it on and he didn’t agree with the reasons why he shouldn’t.

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‘It’s hard to see how the band would cause offence, except, I suppose, to the radical Muslim community’ – Terry Sutton, Royal British Legion in Colchester.

The mother of two added: ‘When the teacher said she was worried it was going to offend people, I thought it was disgusting. Our family are up in arms because we are all military minded.

‘With what happened with Lee Rigby, Charlie really wanted to wear a wristband.’

Drummer Rigby, 25, was killed by two Islamic fanatics in Woolwich, south-east London, in May last year. Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, were jailed for the murder last month.

Headteacher Tracy Thornton insisted wearing wristbands is against the school’s jewellery policy.

She said: ‘They are not allowed to wear jewellery, and that includes wristbands, for health and safety reasons because they could get caught.

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