A BOY was not allowed to attend classes because his new hairstyle could be mistaken for a symbol of gang affiliation.

Kafeel Mohammed, 12, who is in his second year at Walthamstow Academy in Billet Road, on Tuesday (January 11) turned up for school with two lines shaved in the side of his head.

But he was told he could not join in with classmates and the school said a member of staff phoned his grandmother, who gave him permission to leave the school premises.

But his family say his grandmother cannot speak English and the first they heard that he had been banned from lessons was when a friend phoned his father to say he had been spotted roaming around Walthamstow.

His mother Natalie Walker said she accepted the school had rules over pupils’ appearance, but was unhappy her son had to miss a day of school due to a haircut.

She said: “How could they let him leave to roam the streets without speaking to myself or his dad?

“The least they could have done is to still give him lessons even if he had to do it in a class by himself and away from other pupils.”

Vice-principal, Rachel Ward, insists the boy’s grandmother was contacted and said the reason hairstyles like Kafeel's are banned was because they could be interpreted by pupils as symbols of gang membership.

She added: “When everyone wears the same uniform, what you have is an equalisation of all students, regardless of background."

Ms Ward said the students could log in to a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), which allowed them to learn from a home or a library, but Mrs Walker said she was unaware of this.

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