Pupil protests at purity ring ban [England]

A SCHOOLGIRL has protested against her school's ruling that she cannot wear a purity ring which shows her intention to abstain from sex before marriage. Kioni Lansbury claims the ring is a religious symbol, but her headteacher at King's School, in Ottery St Mary, has said school rules forbid all jewellery on the grounds of health and safety and told her she must remove the ring for lessons.

Kioni, 12, is a fan of the Jonas Brothers, an American pop group whose members all wear the purity rings. The movement is popular in the USA where teenagers are encouraged to abstain from sex. There is no particular style for purity rings, although many have a cross in their design in reference to Jesus Christ or embossed sayings such as "True Love Waits".

They are worn on the wedding ring finger as a symbol of chastity and are becoming increasingly popular in the UK. Kioni's mother, Sandra Holden, bought her the ring last month.

Last Thursday, a teaching assistant noticed it and told Kioni she should ask headteacher Faith Jarrett if it was allowed. The school has a blanket ban on all jewellery and Kioni was told she was not allowed to wear the ring.

Mrs Holden said: "I think she should be able to wear it. It's no different to religious symbols. "She wants to save herself for when she's older and doesn't want to waste her innocence."

Kioni said she felt she was setting a good example by wearing the ring. "Lots of girls sleep around and this doesn't give the right message to others," she said. "I want to keep myself pure. Many of my friends want to get one. If people are allowed to wear head scarves, why can't I wear a ring?"

Miss Jarrett said: "It's a health and safety in school issue. We think what the ring represents is great and it's great that she's standing up for what she thinks is important – she can keep it in school and keep it in her purse. But we think if she wears it, it is going to be dangerous not only to herself but to others."

Miss Jarrett said the ring could get caught during lessons such as design and technology or PE and cause an injury. She added that the same rule applied to any item of jewellery, religious or otherwise.

"We're quite happy for her to have it with her and we support the message behind it," she said.

"The organisers say in their literature that the main purpose of the ring is not about wearing it, but as a constant reminder between themselves and God of the decision they've taken. It doesn't matter whether you actually wear it or have it in your pocket."

Last year West Sussex pupil Lydia Playfoot took Millais School to the High Court after it banned her from wearing a purity ring. The court found in favour of the school.

I was just reading Rod Liddle’s take in the Times:

“Kioni’s school has cited health and safety as the reason for not allowing her to wear her daft ring. Here’s my suspicion: the school is being disingenuous. The real question is why it felt the need to be so.

“There was another little girl who was in the news this week, an even younger child. Alisha is eight years old and goes to school in Hartlepool but is being kept at home because the school won’t let her attend while wearing her earrings. Her mum was most indignant; she knew her rights.

“It may be that one day very soon Alisha will have a snake tattoo emerging from her buttocks and also a belly bar, who knows, maybe before the age of nine, with mum’s blessing. But again the school objected to the earrings on the grounds of – yes, health and safety.

“Even though the kid might have compromised and taken the earrings off when she went out to play, I think the school objected to the earrings primarily because they are repulsive on a child that young and are, on a deeper level, a sort of signifier for lots of ghastly things to come. In a way, earrings worn by an eight-year-old imply the opposite commitment to the one made by Kioni: they’re impurity earrings.

“I reckon the school is right to object broadly on those grounds, or more crucially simply because earrings are against its rules – but it wouldn’t dare say that, would it?

“Any more than Kioni’s school would say – look, first, we don’t allow jewellery of any kind, those are the rules, so bloody well abide by them, and second, we think the purity ring is a fatuous and deluded concept, so wear it at home if you must.

“Nope, instead it resorts to what has become the last refuge of officialdom – health and safety. The only thing in this country which has force any more, no matter how utterly spuriously so.

“Both schools should have told the parents that the rules were absolutely straightforward and were to be abided by without negotiation.

“But that sort of discipline has disappeared and we have in its place a new kind, based upon nonsense.

It’s a danger? Caught during PE? What are they fooling with in those classes?

When I worked in a hospital it was absolute no dangly earrings or necklaces - it was easy to get caught or a confused patient could snatch your ear.

And my husband worked with heavy machinery and never wore his wedding ring at work. But what are they working with in “Design and Technology”? And isn’t it part of a lesson then, to stop and remove your jewelry beforehand?

So in this school system the girls are not allowed to wear any rings, necklaces, earrings, etc.? I can’t believe they actually get away with enforcing a rule like that. What is the danger of wearing a ring? Or a necklace? Or earrings?

Wow - you sure would not get away with that in Canada. Most of our kids have so many nuts, bolts, screws, and assorted hardware on their faces, ears, assorted body parts, I can’t image them even suggesting such a thing.

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