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  • 2014-12-01 (xsd:date)
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  • Student Forced to Remove Help 4 Heroes Wristband (en)
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  • On 12 March 2014, the Daily Mail published an article titled Teacher orders boy, 10, to remove Help for Heroes wristband worn in memory of Lee Rigby 'because it might cause offence.' In it, the paper reported a 10-year-old English boy named Charlie was ordered to remove a Help 4 Heroes wristband worn in honor of slain British soldier Lee Rigby, who was attacked and murdered in Woolwich, London, in May 2013: Example: [Collected via email, December 2014] According to Charlie's mother, Tracy Tew, the boy's teacher cited possible offense as the reason the Help 4 Heroes wristband was not permitted: Since the initial article was published in March 2014, the Help 4 Heroes wristband tale spread internationally on social media sites. Many users liked and shared memes objecting to the school's decision to prohibit the wristband due to potential offense on the part of Muslims because two men arrested in connection with Rigby's slaying, Michael Olumide Adebolajo and Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale, cited British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as a motivation for their attack on Rigby. At the time of the Daily Mail's coverage of the Help 4 Heroes wristband controversy in March 2014, the newspaper contacted Maldon Primary School for information on the incident. According to Headteacher Tracy Thornton, the wristband was prohibited not because of any potential offense it might cause, but because it violated the school's dress code: Although the incident occurred in the UK, outrage quickly spread to the U.S. as well. An American Facebook page with a large following shared the item on 1 October 2014, without a link to any news stories, context, or location, leading many readers to believe the incident had occurred in the United States and to accept the claim at face value. As the Maldon Primary School page illustrated, students in the UK wear uniforms to school more often than do their peers in the United States. The school's event page features images showing male pupils wearing white polo shirts and blue sweaters. It does not require a large leap of imagination to presume plastic wristbands of any sort, worn for any reason, would violate the school's strict dress code (as was stated by Thornton in her interview). The same event page reported three of the school's eight scheduled annual events honored or involved the country's armed forces: Remembrance Day, Red, White and Blue Day; and the Centenary Poppy Campaign. As such, it is unlikely animosity towards the UK's armed forces or fear of offense prompted a teacher to order the child to remove his Help 4 Heroes wristband; the item simply violated the school's dress code rules. (en)
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