An English boarding school has come under fire for asking pupils to wear a “yellow badge” to show they are exempt from using a face mask. The Telegraph has more.
Farringtons School in Kent, which charges £34,050 per year for boarders, has made it compulsory for children to wear face masks in classrooms and corridors following a rise in cases of COVID-19.
In a letter to parents, David Jackson, the school’s headmaster, said that pupils who are exempt from wearing masks “should wear a yellow badge to indicate this”.
The move has been criticised by family groups, who say it is “deeply inappropriate” given the “historic connotations” with yellow badges.
Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear a yellow star so they could be easily marked out for segregation and discrimination.
Molly Kingsley, co-founder of parent campaign group UsForThem, said: “Asking children to wear some form of exemption marker has been quite common in schools and unbelievably this specific example of asking them to wear a yellow badge is not in isolation.
“It should not need explaining why this is a deeply inappropriate thing to ask a child to do. This has historic connotations which are deeply uncomfortable for many people.”
She added that children who are medically exempt from face masks may already be vulnerable, and asking them to wear a yellow badge will only serve to “stigmatise” them even more.
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