Suspension Of Beatles’ Fans “Too Silly”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 15

Suspension Of Beatles’ Fans “Too Silly”

<s’eto Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, June 30. The father of one of Spotswood College’s suspended Beatle fans hit out today at the “ridiculous decision.” Mr J. Prout, whose 15-year-old daughter, Mary, was suspended for three days because she took time off to see a Beatles concert in Auckland, termed the punishment “ill-judged.” The suspension imposed by the college principal (Mr A. L. McPhail) on Mary and her girlfriend, Robin Mackenzie, was confirmed last evening by the New Plymouth High School Board. • “I think the whole thing is really too silly for words,” Mr Prout said.

“There was no justification for imposing suspension in a case like this. The girls went with their parents' permission, so they weren’t playing the wag.” Referring to Mr McPhail’s statoient that he was reachable about time off for special occasions, Mr Prout said: “If the Beatles aren’t a special occasion for teenagers, what is? Personally, I

wouldn’t walk across the road to see them. “Anyway, it’s a bad outlook for the school that they won’t be able to go to the Wednesday Ranfurly Shield match.

“It’s the strangest punishment I’ve ever heard of. If we were sent home for three days in my schooldays we would have thought all our birthdays had come.” Today the girls were told they could return to school. Robin went back after lunch and Mary will return tomorrow. - .

Mary’s father said that his daughter was not sent back to school today “because three days are three days, not two and a half.”