Hyperactive pupils get vests filled with sand

SCHOOLS in Germany are making hyperactive pupils wear vests that are filled with sand.

The vests, pictured, which weigh as much as 13lb, are being used in about 200 schools.

Supporters say the weight of the vests helps children feel centred and stop fidgeting, while opponents have branded them ‘straitjackets’. Grumbrechtstrasse school, in Hamburg, has pioneered the £150 vests.

Gerhild de Wall, of the school, said: ‘Children love to wear the vests and no one is forced into wearing one against their will.’ But Michael Schulte-Markwort, of the Child and Youth Psychiatry University Clinic in Hamburg, said they were ‘ethically questionable’.