Wearing 'purity rings' is banned at girls' school

More frightened humanists. More vicious proseltyzing teenage females. (Today's theme? See below.) This time they are terrified of 14-year-old girls and their purity rings. At least this nonsense is going on in England. Pip, pip, cheerio ... and all that sort of thing!

Wearing 'purity rings' is banned at girls' school | the Daily Mail

A school has banned Christian pupils from wearing rings that symbolise the teenagers' belief in chastity until marriage.

Youngsters have been ordered to remove the 'purity rings' because they contravene the school's uniform policy.

Millais School, an all-girls' comprehensive in West Sussex, has a strict 'no jewellery' rule, allowing only small stud earrings.

But the girls' families argue that that the rings - simple bands of silver given to youngsters who complete an evangelical church course preaching abstinence - hold genuine religious significance.

Parents also point out that the school allows Muslim and Sikh pupils to wear headscarves or kara bracelets as a means of religious expression.

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She said: "My friends and I have had detentions and been taught in isolation for wearing the ring.

"I feel like I've been treated the same as someone who is caught bringing cannabis into school.

"My ring is a symbol of my religious faith. I think, as a Christian, it says we should keep ourselves pure from sexual sinfulness and wearing the ring is a good way of making a stand."

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Tory MP Andrew Selous, chair of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, raised the wearing of purity rings with Schools Minister Jim Knight in the Commons last week.

In a written parliamentary answer, Mr Knight said that while school governors had freedom to set uniform rules, government guidance states that they 'should have regard to their responsibilities under equalities legislation' and be 'sensitive to pupils' cultural and religious needs'.

Leon Nettley, headmaster of Millais, said in a statement that the school's own sex education programme already stressed the illegality of under-age sex and encouraged pupils to discuss the issues.

He added: "In relation to the issue of wearing a purity ring, the school is not convinced that pupils' rights have been interfered with by the application of the school's uniform policy.

"The school has a clearly published uniform policy and sets high standards in this respect."