British school bans designer coats to stop poverty shaming

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ASPartOfMe
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17 Nov 2018, 11:27 am

School bans designer coats to stop ‘poverty shaming’

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A secondary school in Merseyside has banned pupils from wearing expensive designer coats in an attempt to stop “poverty shaming”.

After the Christmas break, students at Woodchurch High School in Birkenhead will not be allowed to wear brands including Canada Goose, Moncler and Pyrenex.

Canada Goose coats range in price from about £275 to £1,400, while Pyrex and Moncler coats cost up to £650 and £9,175 respectively.

Headteacher Rebekah Phillips told The Independent parents had asked the school introduce the ban.

“We are very concerned about the fact that our children put a lot of pressure on parents to buy them expensive coats,” she said.

Pupils were attending classes in coats that cost up to £700, she said, adding “a lot of parents at our school cannot afford that”.

Those pupils who did not have expensive outerwear were upset, she continued. “They feel stigmatised, they feel left out, they feel inadequate,” she said.

Parents had previously had the problem with children requesting designer rucksacks, which increased the price of attending school, the headteacher said.

The ban on designer coats was one step towards “poverty proofing” the Church of England school and staff were considering introducing a school coat to the uniform, she said.

But other people thought the ban was unnecessarily restrictive. Another social media user Chris Garland asked: ”Why shouldn’t you be allowed to keep warm in something nice your parents have bought you.

“I highly doubt every kid with a nice coat bulls someone so if there’s a case of a group say targeting someone that’s a separate issue and should be resolved by the school.”

I see lawnmower parenting is not just an American problem.

I missed the memo that said school uniforms prevent bullying(sarcasm).

Bolding mine. That is the crux of the problem there, parents are not supposed to be giving in to childrens every whim. I also think the parents like designer coats on their mini me’s for status reasons.

Banning by itself does not teach values it only increases demand for the banned item. Teaching values teaches values. If parents and the school do not teach that bullying is bad, that judging people by their material possessions is bad no amount of banning is going to help. All that is bieng taught in this school is fragility.

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LoveNotHate
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17 Nov 2018, 12:11 pm

It's ironic, this "church school" is catering to the sin of ENVY.

Proper lessons:
1. Envy is an UGLY thing. It's a reflection of your inner self lacking.
2. Life is unfair, learn to deal with it.
3. Learn to appreciate what you got.
4. If you want something nice, then get a job and earn the money to buy it.
5. Frugality can be better, because you save and earn interest on your money.

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Last edited by LoveNotHate on 17 Nov 2018, 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

lostonearth35
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17 Nov 2018, 12:17 pm

When I was younger a woman told me about how she put a can of pop in her daughter's lunch, which she did once in a while for a treat. It was the store brand pop, which the daughter liked, and not a popular name brand, but when she had her lunch at school another kid called it "poverty pop" and was very nasty, and it upset the daughter very much.

Yet another example of how cruel kids can be.

shortfatbalduglyman
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17 Nov 2018, 1:22 pm

How does the school administration enforce that rule?

Students bring in receipts ? Jackets over how much money are banned? Numerical value

Sweetleaf
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17 Nov 2018, 1:38 pm

I feel like a better approach would be to do some kind of fundraiser or put some school funds towards ensuring all the kids have a good quality winter jacket. I mean what if some kids not so well off parent saved up a bit to buy their kid a nice jacket and now they aren't even allowed to wear it to school? Or what if they found a nice used jacket of one of those bands at a thrift store for less cost?

And how does it poverty proof anything, does this move make the poor kids less poor?

Saw something similar about a school in Canada and thought the same thing.

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thoughtbeast
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17 Nov 2018, 6:02 pm

I attended Catholic schools, both elementary and secondary. A dress code was in place for precisely the reason of preventing expensive competition. For boys, slacks and white shirt. For girls, a school dress uniform. And of course, no patent leather shoes (although that was for another reason).

Heat844
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19 Nov 2018, 1:34 am

thoughtbeast wrote:

But dresses are sexist now, aren't they? :roll:

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