Fury as school slaps ban on ‘achoo’

ANGRY parents have slammed a school punishing their kids for sneezing.

Children are also being kept behind after school in same-day detentions for wearing the wrong colour of socks and having the wrong coloured pens.

The new crackdown follows a ban on mobile phones, earphones, headphones and smartwatches earlier this year at Longsands Academy in St Neots, Cambs.

One mum said: “The school is upping their game by dishing out detentions for having wrong colour pens, socks and sneezing in class. My son got a detention because he had not filled in a family tree with his father and his side of the family for French.

Livid

“He hasn’t had contact with his father for seven years so it really upset him. It’s beyond a joke.”

Another mum said: “My son said he got detention because he was given a quiz sheet for homework and answered six of the seven questions because he didn’t understand the last one.

“I don’t take everything my son says as gospel so I spoke to the teacher and she said she thought it was because he couldn’t be bothered or ran out of time for so gave him a detention. I think it’s very unfair.

“I didn’t sleep all night because it was just winding me up so much.”

A school spokeswoman said no pupil has been placed in detention solely for sneezing.

But she did not deny that students are being punished for it.

She added: “Same-day detentions are a tried and tested way of making sure that low-level disruption does not get in the way of our pupils learning.

“We are one of hundreds of secondary schools across the country who have introduced this.”