School Kids Walk Out In Protest At Hand-Holding Ban

School Kids Walk Out In Protest At Hand-Holding Ban

Students at a Catholic secondary school staged a walk out after two of their classmates were ticked off for being 'over-familiar'. The pupils - two girls - had been caught holding hands.

Outraged fellow students abandoned lessons and took to the playing fields of St Benedict's Catholic College in Colchester, Essex in protest.

More than 100 14-16 year olds refused to return to lessons and parents spoke of the school being in 'chaos'. One angry mum told The Sun: 'A lot of parents are unhappy. It could have been handled better.'

Headmaster John O'Hara stood by his decision to put a stop to 'over-familiarity' between pupils, and branded the walk-out 'silly':

'We prefer that the children are not too demonstrative towards each other. If we see students being overly-familiar we deal with it in an appropriate and tactful way. Some students seem to have got the idea there is a new rule where they cannot have any contact with each other. It may have come from something a member of staff said, but it has been taken way out of proportion.'

School prefects who took part in the walk-out were stripped of their titles by Mr O'Hara.

What do you think about this story?

Was the head right to crack down on overly-demonstrative behaviour?

Do your children's schools have the same rule?

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