Re-enactment of film scene led to pupil exclusions

Teenagers were excluded from a high school for recreating a scene from a film about football hooligans.

Pupils at Parklands High in Chorley were sent home after staging a ‘confrontation’ scene from the movie, Green Street, on playing fields.

Parents of pupils involved said they had been ‘play fighting’ and criticised the school for being ‘heavy handed’.

However, school bosses today said the teenagers’ behaviour had clearly breached the school’s code of conduct.

Teenagers from Year 11 used the social networking site Facebook to set up a scene from Green Street.

In the 2005 film, which is about football hooliganism, rival groups of West Ham and Millwall supporters confront each other.

Parents who spoke to the Guardian insisted the teenagers were ‘only acting’, with pushes and shoves exchanged in a ‘playful’ way.

However, it is understood the school felt their behaviour scared younger pupils.

One parent told the Guardian the school said it could have appeared to onlookers that a ‘riot’ was taking place.

Another parent claimed the pupils were only ‘being kids’.

Some pupils were excluded for two days and others one.

The school declined to confirm how many students were involved in the incident.

They are now back in class and been placed on report to monitor their behaviour.

One parent, who asked not to be named, said: “They need to be in school, not out of school.”

The incident happened on Thursday lunchtime but the children only learned of their exclusions on Friday morning.

from - http://www.chorley-guardian.co.uk/news/local/re-enactment-of-film-led-to-pupil-exclusions-1-6147794