There are, of course, many things which constitute a breach of one's human rights - but I'm pretty sure that being sent home from school for turning up with a spectacularly silly hair-do isn't one of them. Maybe some of the Syrian refugees who will shortly be arriving in this country could explain to the two females in the above photograph what a genuine breach of human rights looks like - say, being attacked with chemical weapons, or being imprisoned without trial, or being beheaded, or being driven from your home at the point of a gun, or being tortured just for the fun of it, or being raped by soldiers...you know, minor stuff like that.
Give me strength!
The full heart-rending story can be found on the Daily Mail website, here.
I have noticed this media phenomenon before: Entitlement Denied plus Grumpy Photo. You usually get a couple at the end of school holidays. This one leaves the Mail in a dilemma as to how to spin it: child victimised by uncaring and inflexible authority; or the equally popular your human rights gone mad.
ReplyDeleteBut it's the staged photos that always make the story enjoyable. "OK Mrs McDowell, you are obviously a woman of a naturally sunny disposition, likewise your charming and attractive daughter, and looking disgruntled may not come easily but might I ask you to try to imagine that your dog has just been run over so that we can have an expression with the required amount of resentful victimhood?. Great. That's a lot better."
Actually, I think she may have overdone it a bit.
I just checked the wonderful "Angry People in Local Newspapers" blog, and sure enough this pair of happy campers are in there, with hundreds of other rays of British sunshine:
Deletehttp://apiln.blogspot.co.uk/
Looks like Biffa Bacon's mum in "VIZ". I take it there is no father [s] on the scene because the headmaster has not ended up in Intensive Care [yet].
ReplyDeleteYes, no mention of Pater - but there must be one (or more), as she's the mother of six little bundles of joy.
DeleteYou might enjoy the tale of this chubby little lad sent home from school for sporting a "Sergio Aguero" special:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/pupil-aged-eleven-sent-home-9979864
Mind you, nothing much changes. I remember one boy at our school (a keen rugby player build like a brick shithouse) being punished for turning up on the first day of term with a severe bovver boy cut (he was a mild-mannered solicitor last time I saw him), and a close friend being told to go home and shave immediately when he turned sporting a bit of a beard.