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Schoolgirls forced to strip to underwear in front of boys for PE
Last updated at 23:22pm on 30.09.06
Dawn Bedford and daughter Sam
Parents staged an angry protest after their young daughters were forced to strip to their underwear in front of boys at school.
The girls, aged ten and 11, were left in tears after being ordered to change for PE in a mixed classroom under a school policy blamed on health and safety regulations.
The headmistress of Hillside School in Baddeley Green, Stoke-on-Trent, said the children had to get changed together as there were not enough teachers to supervise them separately.
But furious mother Dawn Bedford said her ten-year-old daughter Sam was reduced tears by the rules.
"The regulations are ridiculous,' she said. "The girls have always changed separately. No one has ever been hurt."
Sam, who had a perfect school record, was excluded for two days because she refused to get changed for after-school football practice with boys watching.
She pulled her PE bag out of a teacher's hand and ran off to the girls' toilets to change. The school says the teacher was assaulted verbally and physically.
Mrs Bedford said: "Sam was embarrassed and distressed because the boys kept looking at her and making comments. She is now wearing her first bra and taking sex education lessons.
"This is a very sensitive time for girls. Don't the teachers realise how difficult it is? Girls were trying to hide under a table so boys could not see them. It is disgusting."
Sam added: "The boys kept looking at me. I was embarrassed so I went to the toilets. But the teacher tried to take me back to the classroom with the boys."
Headmistress Suzanne Foster has now relented following a petition from 50 parents. She refused to comment on her safety concerns but said: "The situation has now been resolved and the children are changing in separate areas."
In a statement to parents, she said: "The arrangements started this term purely for health and safety reasons. I cannot have unsupervised children at school."
The Department for Education said: "It is up to the head to decide what happens when children are changing for PE. It is a matter of personal discretion."
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