Plan B Forum

Devoted mothers and fathers are being banned from watching their children play school sport unless they pass a criminal record check.

The red tape restriction is being forced on parents by overcautious bosses at Isambard Community School in Swindon, Wiltshire, in a bid to weed out potential paedophiles.

Dad-of-five Neil Park, 54, was furious when he was turned away from watching his 12-year-old son George, play rugby because he had not completed the £26, four-page Criminal Records Bureau application.

He said: 'I couldn't believe it. Government guidelines state that parents are allowed to watch games.

'But any strangers can be questioned and requested to show the appropriate paperwork, which is fair enough.

'George was really upset by it all. What are they going to stop you going to next? Parents' evening? The school play?

'Or what if England under 16s are playing at the County Ground, will they ask all fans there to be CRB checked?'

The school introduced the Big Brother measure at the start of the term to prevent strangers from accessing other parts of the school from the playing fields.

A spokesman said: 'It is with regret that from now on we will be unable to accommodate parents wishing to spectate at our sports fixtures unless they are in possession of an up-to-date Swindon Council CRB check.

'At Isambard we take safeguarding very seriously and because of this we are unable to leave gates open for access to sporting venues at anytime during the school day.

'The current access arrangements are frustrating for both Isambard staff and parents and have recently resulted in reception staff and PE staff being on the receiving end of verbal abuse from parents who have become frustrated trying to get into or out of the school.'

dgs49 wrote:Tangent alert:

Damn poor journalism here. Is it "devoted" mothers who are being restrained, or is it all mothers? Overcautious? "Big Brother" measure?

Just report the fucking facts and let the reader decide whether this is a wise policy or not. Keep your opinions to yourself. The reader frankly doesn't care what you think.

Carry on.

On the other hand this is only one school out of the, well there must be several, in England.

People repeat 'dumb things done by schools' stories because there are a lot of them and in any given month a few are going to screw up pretty good. So this may be unreasoning hysteria on, well, your part.

hys·te·ri·a
   [hi-ster-ee-uh, -steer-]
noun
1.
an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc.

Gob wrote:It's the Daily Mail Dave, it's a sort of "Fox News" for Brits...

The Hen wrote:(Or just the Daily Mail.)