Parents Furious After School Asks Year 9 Pupils To Vote For 'Best Looking' Child

We all remember what it was like to be 14 years old at school - navigating relationships, dealing with friendship fallouts and worrying about how you looked were all part of it.

As if we didn't have enough to deal during those transitional years, imagine how traumatic it would be to have your appearance pit against your fellow students.

This was the reality for year nine students at Hugh Christie School in Tonbridge, Kent, who were asked to vote for the 'best looking boy and girl' in their year as part of their end of year celebrations.

An angry aunt shared a picture of the form given out to students on Twitter, calling it "shocking".

Lucy Hall wrote: "My Nephews school just sent them home with this - school is hard enough when you are 14 to create awards over best looking boy and girl. Shocking.

"@HughChristieSch why would you let this happen? Parents are appalled by this."

As part of the end of year festivities, 13 and 14-year-old pupils were asked to nominate other pupils in a number of categories before an awards ceremony.

They were asked to vote for 'best looking male', 'best looking female', 'biggest poser' and 'best couple'. Sigh.

'Most irritating habit', 'biggest strop', and 'biggest ego' were also among the categories, in all, rounding off a pretty vacuous and negative set of awards, which would no doubt leave some pupils feeling upset in one way or another.

Pexels

What about those who suffer from body confidence issues and didn't get voted good looking by their classmates? Or others who had never kissed someone let alone been in a couple? They are 13 and 14 after all, for crying out loud! Way to make you feel like you're lagging behind...

Now, Hugh Christie have responded saying they will tell students to "disregard the form," adding they have spoken to "the member of staff responsible."

They added: "We totally agree this was inappropriate and apologise unreservedly for any offence caused to our students and parents."

But that didn't stop parents from joining in their horror at the form, with one calling it "school sanctioned bullying."

The commenter added: "Horrendous when we have a huge crisis in teen mental health. It's perfectly possible to do this without shaming and judgemental categories."

Another added: "Like kids don't already feel left out! Only more reason to feel like an outsider or get bullied"

One more called the list "horrendous", giving suggestion for alternate awards categories. They wrote: "What about a category for most inspiring, kindest or most caring? Awards that celebrate the good in kids rather than reinforcing superficial values? Shame on the school!"

Another vented: "That's disgusting. Absolutely none of those categories celebrate positive attributes. It's 2019!! How is this happening?!?"

A fifth added: "Yikes! Way to teach people to see past the superficial."

Let's hope this is a one-off incident and other schools across the UK are making smarter decisions about how they talk to their students.

Topics: Life News, School, Life

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara is a freelance journalist working for Tyla. After graduating from the University of Sussex, Ciara worked as a writer at GLAMOUR Magazine and later as the Assistant Editor of Yahoo Style UK.

@ciarasheppard