A SCHOOLGIRL has been banned from classes because of her tongue piercing, just months before she is due to sit her GCSE exams.

Mimi Partlett says she was threatened with exclusion from King Alfred’s Academy in Wantage when she turned up to school with the piercing last Friday.

The procedure had been a present from her mother for her 16th birthday, earlier this month.

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But on turning up for lessons, Mimi was placed in isolation by her Year 11 teacher, who also sent a letter to her home warning that if the teenager did not take the piercing out, she would be banned from class.

The school’s headteacher Rick Holroyd, refused to comment on the incident after he was contacted by the Oxford Mail this week.

But Rhiannon Partlett – the pupil’s older sister – said that Mimi had offered to change the piercing to a small and barely visible plastic retainer as a compromise.

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This would prevent her tongue from healing over, but would not be as obvious.

However, the school was not willing to budge.

Rhiannon described the school’s punishment as ‘ridiculous’ and added:

“Mimi did not go around flashing her new piercing to her classmates, so the school actually did not know for a couple of weeks, and you cannot really see it in her mouth.

“I think someone ‘dobbed’ her in when she put pictures of it on social media.

“My sister reckons it was another kid who was probably jealous about it.

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“Mimi’s head of year complained about it and kept telling her to open her mouth. As you can imagine, Mimi was wary of it because of Covid-19.

“But the teacher told her that if she did not open her mouth, she would be kicked out from the school there and then.”

The schoolgirl was then sent to the isolation room, where misbehaving pupils are usually sent.

According to Ms Partlett, the 16-year-old was told that if she continued to wear the tongue piercing, she would spent the rest of Year 11 in the isolation room, without lessons.

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King Alfred’s policy states that no face or body piercings are allowed, except a ‘small plain stud in each earlobe only’.

The school also has a strict policy over make up, jewellery, haircuts and hair colour.

Legally, however, there is no age limit for tongue piercings.

King Alfred's School was also under fire earlier this year when for asking students to return in full uniform when schools reopened.

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