Story Archive

Microprotest

“We were told that all [book] bags were banned because of health and safety reasons,” says Jacob Ford about his school, Spalding Grammar in Spalding, England, “after a Year 7 student had been accidentally hit by a bag.” When the school shut down an online petition against the ban that was backed by nearly 500 people, Ford started a silent protest. He started carrying his books to school in other objects that were not prohibited by the rules — culminating in a microwave oven. Ford was “isolated” from other students (made to sit alone in a corridor), and texted his mother to tell her about it. That’s when headmaster Steven Wilkinson summoned him, demanding to know how his mother knew he was isolated. Wilkinson also demanded Ford hand over his phone, he refused: his mother, who supports his protest, told him to never give up his phone. Wilkinson thus suspended him for two days. “What disappoints me most,” he whined, “is the fact that, rather than working with us, the parent concerned has encouraged” her son’s behavior. (RC/Spalding Today) ...And it still doesn’t occur to him who the real problem person is.