Since losing his hair to a serious illness as a young child, Dale Platts and his baseball cap have become inseparable.

The New York Yankees hat has not only helped the 13-year-old to cope with the cruel taunts of other children, but also protects his head and lashless eyes from the sun.

But the schoolboy has now been ordered to remove the cap after his school decided it went against its uniform policy.

Dale Platts wearing his cherished New York Yankees cap, pictured with father Gareth and mother Kenina

Dale - who was warned that he would be taught in isolation if he refused - is now at home and missing classes.

His mother, Kenina Platts, 41, said: 'It's really cruel. I'm outraged the school can be so short-sighted. He wears the hat for medical reasons - it's not a fashion statement.

'Dale has to suffer at the hands of child bullies. Now the school itself is pressurising him and bullying him. He is too ashamed to take it off.

'To say he would be taught in isolation is madness. It is like putting him in solitary confinement. It is punishing him for being bald.'

Dale lost his hair, toenails and fingernails when he was five months old after suffering from severe bronchiolitis, a respiratory virus that left him in hospital for a week.

Bullied: Dale says he wears the baseball cap to fit in at school

During the illness, his immune system began to attack parts of his body, including his hair follicles, stopping the hair and nails from growing - a condition known as alopecia universalis.

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Dale lost his hair at five months old after suffering from bronchiolitis

The condition is the most severe form of alopecia, affecting one in 100,000 people, including Little Britain comedian Matt Lucas.

However, Dale, of Collingham, Nottinghamshire, was unconcerned by his baldness until he started secondary school aged 11 and the bullying began.

He has had items thrown at his head and been taunted with cruel names and chants.

He has not left his bedroom without wearing his baseball hat for two years.
But at the end of last term, Maggie Brown, the deputy head of Robert Pattinson School in North Hykeham, Lincolnshire, told him the cap contravened its dress code.

Although he has been told he can wear a beanie hat as a compromise, Dale has complained the woolly hat causes eczema and headaches, and does not offer the same protection-against harsh fluorescent lighting and dust as his cap.

He was sent home last Thursday, the first day of the new school term.
Dale said: 'I just want to go to school and get no bother.'

A spokesman for the school said its uniform policy does not allow peaked caps or hoodies, but some allowances could be made for medical or religious reasons.

In Dale's case, the school said it believed the family had agreed the teenager would wear a beanie hat.