Thaindian News

London, Feb 1 (ANI): Students in a British school staged a mass walkout after a teacher, who spotted two teen aged girls walking arm in arm, spoke to the class about it being an inappropriate behaviour.

Pupils raced from classroom to classroom whipping up anger against the ticking off or spread the word on Facebook and soon up to 150 children had marched out of lessons and onto the school playing field.

Teachers at St Benedict’s Catholic College in Colchester, Essex, had to cancel the last two lessons of the day, according to insiders, as they struggled to contain the incident.

When it finally petered out, several pupils had been suspended, some prefects had been stripped of their titles, and scores of detentions had been handed out.

But as discontent rumbled on, head teacher John O’Hara (CORR) insisted pupils had wrongly thought the school had introduced a “no contact” rule and reacted to what they “perceived to be a telling off, which did not take place”.

Pupils refused to believe the claim however, saying word had spread like wildfire that they should not link arms or hold hands.

O’Hara said the protest was sparked after a member of staff told a group of children there were “appropriate rules and relations we have because it is a school” and some “twisted” the message.

“They have got upset at what they perceived to be a telling off, which did not take place. That message has snowballed through Facebook and got out of control,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

“Yes, we did have a number of children who went out of the school and were not keen to come back into the building. They have got the wrong end of the stick - they went out before anybody could speak to them.

“There is no credibility to the reason why they were out of lessons,” he added. (ANI)