DISPUTE OVER TIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 12

DISPUTE OVER TIES

SCHOOL RULE CHALLENGED.

Having refused to send his son to ! school wearing a tie, Mr Sidney W. Joiner, of Sutton Road, Watford, England, was fined 2/6 by the local magis- ■ trate recently. Mr Frederick Wilson, for the educa- ■ tion authorities, offered to withdraw the case if the evidence was given that the boy should, on medical grounds, wear a shirt open at the neck. Mr H. Glynn Jones, representing Mr Joiner, aske.d that the case should proceed. Mr Wilson said that the headmaster of Beecham Grove School, Mr W. Belsher, decided that boys should be allowed to go to school without coats and waistcoats provided they wore ties. Last summer Mr Jbiner sent his boy without coat, waistcoat or tie, and with his shirt unbuttoned at the top.

The boy did not attend school for some days, and then came without tie or buttons. He was sent home for a stud, and had not attended school since July 7. Mr Jones produced a journal circulated by the medical officer for Watford and referred to a heading, "Less Clothing, Better Health." He said it should have the right to prescribe what children should wear, providing they were decently dressed and clean. "It is an inducement for children ot think that persons gearing collars and ties are to be preferred to those without,” he said. “Why should it be necessary to make snobs'of them?” After the magistrates had given their verdict, Mr Jones asked them to state their case, and was to make his application in writing.