PA
A headteacher who banned parents from sports events has spoken out to defend her decision.
Janet Cullen - who, ironically, is the head of Lea Valley High School which SPECIALISES in sport - had put the ruling in place after spectators had become 'aggressive' during matches. The school became a specialist sports college in 2002, and former Arsenal player Paul Rodgers and Rosie and Mollie Kmita from Tottenham Hotspur Ladies are former students.
Ms Cullen told the The Evening Standard: "Even at matches with young children, spectators were too energised. We are conscious of young people's safety.
"We don't have the staff capacity to manage spectators, and in the past there have been spectators who have come on to the site and been aggressive to our referee and to our children.
"We found sometimes it was just random people who came to watch games of football."
The school's director of physical education, Laura Hunt, wrote on the school website: "We appreciate that parents/carers may wish to ... watch and support their children, however, as school staff, we have a duty of care to students and have to ensure that appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures are adopted, implemented and monitored.
"For our students' safekeeping, we must state that we cannot permit parents/carers or other adults on site at these times, and hope you will understand and support us in this."
What do you think? Can you understand why the school has done this?
Have you seen similar 'energised' parents at your children's sporting events?