School kids not allowed in supermarket

c68zapdsm5i1ru

My friend's child goes to a school near a large Tesco. The school has recently made a rule that kids cannot go into the supermarket in their school uniform. Apparently they're fed up getting complaints from the store and its customers about gangs of kids messing around, egging each other on to rob stuff, standing in big gangs at the doors blocking other customers from getting in and out, running around the aisles banging into people and so on. My friend thinks the ban is fair enough but she said some parents are up in arms about it and have written furious emails to the school principal and are trying to get other parents to object as well.
Just wondering how you'd feel about this ban if it was your child's school. Personally I can see the sense in it. The principal has better things to be doing than dealing with constant complaints from the supermarket, and it won't kill the kids to do without a bag of crisps or mars bar on their way home.

kneemos

Little basterds.

The Backwards Man

Nothing puts people off going into a business more than a gang of kids hanging round the door.

whiskeyman

If I were that principal, I'd buy the rival schools uniform and hand them out to the known little feckers and let them run amok in the store!

blackwhite

Where's the Tesco?

I might consider moving my custom to it

cuana

Its a place of business not a play ground if they can't behave appropriately well then so be it!!

minidazzler

I'd put a bet that it's the parents who are freaking out about it whose kids cause most of the problems.

anncoates

Something about parents, licences, dogs and kids.

Please thank effusively.

Cheers.

Mousewar

Same thing happened with the Superquinn near my school. Even one of the guys from the school who worked in Superquinn couldn't get in wearing the uniform.
They have the right to refuse admission. Fair enough I say.

Oink

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

The school has recently made a rule that kids cannot go into the supermarket in their school uniform. Apparently they're fed up getting complaints from the store and its customers

Makes sense

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

some parents are up in arms about it and have written furious emails to the school principal and are trying to get other parents to object as well.

Well Boohoo. Have they nothing else to complain about?

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

Just wondering how you'd feel about this ban if it was your child's school.

So he can't go to the supermarket at lunchtime. Poor thing what's he gonna do?

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

The principal has better things to be doing than dealing with constant complaints from the supermarket, and it won't kill the kids to do without a bag of crisps or mars bar on their way home.

Hallelujah sister.

Dayum. I think I'm turning into a cantankerous old fekker.

Tokyo

Apparently they're fed up getting complaints from the store and its customers about gangs of kids messing around, egging each other on to rob stuff, standing in big gangs at the doors blocking other customers from getting in and out, running around the aisles banging into people and so on.

I don't have a problem with it. It's not like the school, or Tescos is pulling the notion out of thin air....

jimgoose

It would be rather better if people impressed upon their progeny the requirement to not behave like an infestation of rodents while out in public.

ScumLord

I don't know, kind of seems like the shops problem, I don't see how the school has the right to dictate what amenities other people can use.

I'm sure the shop has plenty of cameras that can single out the trouble causers and then ban them from the shop. It would require someone sitting down going through tapes and following through with the ban but I would consider that part of their job.

Pumpkinseeds

I'd agree with Tesco, I hate being in a shop or shopping centre at lunchtime or right after the schools let out for the day, it's a nightmare. It's a long time ago now, but back in the 80's the local shopping centre wouldn't serve anyone under 18 during school hours, including lunchtime to try to stop truanting. How times have changed.

Tokyo

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't know, kind of seems like the shops problem, I don't see how the school has the right to dictate what amenities other people can use.

I'm sure the shop has plenty of cameras that can single out the trouble causers and then ban them from the shop. It would require someone sitting down going through tapes and following through with the ban but I would consider that part of their job.

It becomes the school's problem though if they are fielding calls on a daily basis along the lines of "a bunch of kids wearing your school uniform are tearing up the place".

As someone has mentioned earlier, perhaps if the parents focused less on their righteous indignation and letter writing campaigns, and more on teaching their spawn not to be little ****ebags in public, then there wouldn't be much of a problem for either the supermarket or the school to deal with in the first palce...

Donkey Oaty

There was a school in England, forget where exactly, that had a big sign outside saying "Welcome to xxxxx Secondary School".

Underneath some wag had written "No more than two newsagents at a time".

upstairs for coffee

School Kids are the absolute worst. Clog up absolutely everything. Public Transport. Mummies collecting their precious kids right from the door at school. At the weekend clogging up town. Dressed in tracksuits, hands down their pants, smelling of Lynx, smelling of pennies perfume. Little ****s.

If I was in charge, no one under the age of 18 would be allowed into town unless accompanied by a guardian at all times. Skunks.

knarkypants

The secondary school near where I am stopped allowing the kids outside the school grounds at lunchtime. They opened a canteen in the school where kids can buy a sandwich/roll if they didn't bring a packed lunch. They have fruit available for free too.

The residents and shops where delighted as it stopped anti social behavior and excessive littering in the town.

Problem solved.

ScumLord

mike_ie wrote: »

It becomes the school's problem though if they are fielding calls on a daily basis along the lines of "a bunch of kids wearing your school uniform are tearing up the place".

But the shops has the means and ability to do something about it themselves they just seem to be passing the buck.

As someone has mentioned earlier, perhaps if the parents focused less on their righteous indignation and letter writing campaigns, and more on teaching their spawn not to be little ****ebags in public, then there wouldn't be much of a problem for either the supermarket or the school to deal with in the first palce...

I'm sure parents do, I know my parents did, it didn't stop me acting the shyte when I was out with friends. I'm sure it was the same for my parents and just about every human being on the planet that had to go through adolescence. I can never get over how quickly people forget they did the exact same stuff when they were young or at the very least would have seen the same stuff happening. There's absolutely nothing unique about todays kids.

McDermotX

Kids are running wild, and I blame Mr. and Mrs. Never-spank.

Eeden

I don't like the idea of uniforms in the first place, and this is one of the reasons why.

Tokyo

I like the idea of uniforms, and this is exactly the reason why.....

Lapin

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

.....parents are up in arms about it.....

The parents - Yesterday







And the scene later that evening -





Getting serious now.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

ScumLord wrote: »

But the shops has the means and ability to do something about it themselves they just seem to be passing the buck.

Not really. It would be very difficult to ensure that the trouble makers didn't gain entry to the shop after they've been banned. A bunch of kids in school uniform all arriving in at the same time can look quite indistinguishable from each other. I would imagine it was a mutually suitable arrangement. The supermarket don't have the kids clogging up the place and putting off customers who are actually spending money and not just using the shop as a playground; and the school is not being held responsible for the kids' behaviour once the school day is over. If the kids have nothing to hang around for they'll go home and become their parents' responsiblity.

vitani

Sounds fair enough. Our secondary school made the same rule back in the day, and the shops themselves at other times would only let a certain number of students in at once. There's no need for a schoolkid to go to a shop at lunchtime.

blackwhite

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't know, kind of seems like the shops problem, I don't see how the school has the right to dictate what amenities other people can use.

I'm sure the shop has plenty of cameras that can single out the trouble causers and then ban them from the shop. It would require someone sitting down going through tapes and following through with the ban but I would consider that part of their job.

TBH, I think the school bringing in a rule is a much better solution.

Tesco ban the kids, plenty of them will turn it into a game of cat and mouse, trying to get in without security stopping them. Other than catching the little shits who've been stealing stuff and pressing charges, there's nothing Tesco can do for the rest of the troublemakers except keep removing them from the store.

With the school bringing in the rule Tesco can simply provide images from CCTV and the school can then impose punishments on the kids as it sees fit. IMO there's more of a deterrent there than Tesco simply saying "you're banned."

Any school I've ever dealt with has had some provision in the rules that mean you are subject to school rules if you are wearing the uniform. When wearing the uniform you are deemed to be representing the school, or some similar logic.
I really don't see any issue with the school imposing such a rule if it has been brought to their attention that some students are tarnishing the school's name/reputation.

anncoates

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I'd agree with Tesco, I hate being in a shop or shopping centre at lunchtime or right after the schools let out for the day, it's a nightmare.

Maybe if you asked nicely, they might evacuate the shopping centre for you while you get your messages.

Tokyo

ScumLord wrote: »

But the shops has the means and ability to do something about it themselves they just seem to be passing the buck.

I don't agree. How is the shop supposed to identify individual children from security footage. The best thy would be able to do is send said footage off to the school for a member of staff to go through and identify the cuplrits. The same parents complaining now would be jumping up and down because a teacher had been pulled away from the classroom to view video footage instead.

I'm sure parents do, I know my parents did, it didn't stop me acting the shyte when I was out with friends. I'm sure it was the same for my parents and just about every human being on the planet that had to go through adolescence. I can never get over how quickly people forget they did the exact same stuff when they were young or at the very least would have seen the same stuff happening. There's absolutely nothing unique about todays kids.

I sincerely doubt it. For a few reasons. First, my school simply put a blanket ban on students leaving the school grounds, unless they had a note to go home for lunch. Second, if I went home complaining that I wasn't allowed into the local Tesco anymore, my old man, rightly so, would tell me I had it coming because me and my friends that been acting the ****ebag, rather than jumping up on his high horse and starting a letter writing campaign, because "my Michael would NEVER be part of such delinquent activities", and third, I had more respect than to do it to begin with, because unlike today's kids, my actions actually had consequences, namely a wallop across the back of the head fro being a little ****.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Some parents do seem very quick to jump to their kids' defence nowadays, rushing down to the school to complain about the slightest thing. I suspect they're often the parents whose kids are the worst troublemakers and arrogant little sh*ts with a sense of entitlement.

Femme_Fatale

I don't agree with it. What about the kids who go into Tesco and don't act the tit? Why should they all get punished for the behaviour of some of them. Just throw the troublemakers out, that way the blame is correctly focused.

upstairs for coffee wrote: »

Dressed in tracksuits, smelling of Lynx, smelling of pennies perfume. Little ****s.

Wow, such monsters! :eek:

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

I don't agree with it. What about the kids who go into Tesco and don't act the tit? Why should they all get punished for the behaviour of some of them.

That's life though. Rules are often made to curtail the activities of the minority eg they've recently made quite stringent sick leave rules where I work because a small minority were abusing the system and taking ridiculous amounts of sick time. It now means everyone has to get Dr's certs for sick leave of more than one day. Annoying but there was no other way of dealing with it.

jimgoose

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

That's life though. Rules are often made to curtail the activities of the minority eg they've recently made quite stringent sick leave rules where I work because a small minority were abusing the system and taking ridiculous amounts of sick time. It now means everyone has to get Dr's certs for sick leave of more than one day. Annoying but there was no other way of dealing with it.

Uh-huh. This sort of thing will continue while we put up with a small minority of disruptive loo-lahs spoiling things for normal people.

Diemos

Always drove me bonkers as a teenager, I never shoplifted or anything like that but I would get followed by security in large towns, in the village I grew up in, people behind me in the queue would be called up infront of me when it was my turn to get served.
I don't think teenagers today are any different, a few bad eggs spoiling it for everyone.
The shop are taking the lazy approach but it's their prerogative, if the parents / students don't like it then they can take their business elsewhere.

weldoninhio

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

That's Ireland though. Rules are often made to curtail the activities of the minority eg they've recently made quite stringent sick leave rules where I work because a small minority were abusing the system and taking ridiculous amounts of sick time. It now means everyone has to get Dr's certs for sick leave of more than one day. Annoying but there was no other way of dealing with it.

FYP.

Never get to the root of the problem, just put a blanket ban on it.

Ihatecuddles

Nothing worse than going into Centra and there's 20 school kids in front of you at the deli.

Then you're up, and there's no spicy chicken left!!

Boombastic

They banned me hanging around the local school in my Tesco uniform, it's so unfair

cloud493

We have that ban in the shop I work. Much better. Less noise, less cocky young ones running round shoving stuff in their pockets, or knocking stuff over. Bliss

codrulz

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

My friend's child goes to a school near a large Tesco. The school has recently made a rule that kids cannot go into the supermarket in their school uniform. Apparently they're fed up getting complaints from the store and its customers about gangs of kids messing around, egging each other on to rob stuff, standing in big gangs at the doors blocking other customers from getting in and out, running around the aisles banging into people and so on. My friend thinks the ban is fair enough but she said some parents are up in arms about it and have written furious emails to the school principal and are trying to get other parents to object as well.
Just wondering how you'd feel about this ban if it was your child's school. Personally I can see the sense in it. The principal has better things to be doing than dealing with constant complaints from the supermarket, and it won't kill the kids to do without a bag of crisps or mars bar on their way home.

I think the main issue parents are giving out about is that they believe their children have a right to enter a supermarket in a uniform whether it be on there own or with their parents, the issue isn't children being banned from the store, it's that they must be out of uniform to enter the shop, which parents believe is
Unfair, children have the right the wear there uniform outside of school.

rubadub

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't know, kind of seems like the shops problem, I don't see how the school has the right to dictate what amenities other people can use.

My school had a similar sort of rule. If the shop was to ban them there would be war, makes sense to me that the principal did it.

Pupils still broke the rule. It was really very, very simple. The pupils who broke the rule simply made sure they did none of the nonsense mentioned below

Novalee Grumpy Oxygen wrote: »

Apparently they're fed up getting complaints from the store and its customers about gangs of kids messing around, egging each other on to rob stuff, standing in big gangs at the doors blocking other customers from getting in and out, running around the aisles banging into people and so on.

and therefore the school got no calls about them. I suspect the same might be going on here.

JumpShivers

The Aldi near me won't let children on without a parent, it may be the same with teenagers also.

Centra near me also has gangs of teenagers in the summer, sitting at the tables outside.

I havta agree with the Tesco, although for the good pupils who just go in to buy their lunch, there's always a minority who ruin it.

phasers

eh, sucks for the kids that aren't causing trouble but the problems must be bad if the shop feel that it's worth losing the kids' custom.

ScumLord

blackwhite wrote: »

Tesco ban the kids, plenty of them will turn it into a game of cat and mouse, trying to get in without security stopping them.

They don't have to just target them when their in school uniforms, if it's a relatively small town the people working there probably have kids of their own and know the trouble makers. Wait for one to come in with a parent and then enforce the ban in front of the parent.

Any school I've ever dealt with has had some provision in the rules that mean you are subject to school rules if you are wearing the uniform. When wearing the uniform you are deemed to be representing the school, or some similar logic.

Yes, schools started that craic during my school years, it came in with the boom when schools started to ape expensive American schools in everything but the quality of the education they gave out.

mike_ie wrote: »

I don't agree. How is the shop supposed to identify individual children from security footage.

All human beings come with a unique identifier called a face. They could just use those to identify the people involved.

So it's bad if we don't presume innocence when an adult is accused of a crime because their guilt has to be proven, but it's okay to profile kids on the basis of their clothes and age and assume they're all thieving troublemakers, and if parents get upset about it it's ok to assume their kids are the worst of the troublemaking thieves, and it's because the parents don't hit the kids enough.

Sounds reasonable.

Saggyjocks

A lot of the shops around my way will let 2 or 3 in at a time during lunch hour, seems to work well doesn't put off other shoppers but can't help but feel sorry for them if it's lashing out and they're stood outside queuing

weldoninhio

mike_ie wrote: »

I don't agree. How is the shop supposed to identify individual children from security footage.

I can see a spate of armed robberies happening now with the criminals all wearing school uniforms, now that Mike_ie has pointed out that its impossible to identify individuals in uniforms :pac:

Tokyo

weldoninhio wrote: »

I can see a spate of armed robberies happening now with the criminals all wearing school uniforms, now that Mike_ie has pointed out that its impossible to identify individuals in uniforms :pac:

Yep, because Tesco is going to load up each image and compare it to The Big Tesco Database of Local Schoolchildren that every store has. Rather than the common sense approach of thinking "well the kids are wearing an XYZ school uniform, maybe we should inform them." I assumed that I wouldn't have to connect the dots for people - it seems that assumption was an overreach on my part.

Same parents jumping up and down about the school's decision are the same parents jumping up and down saying that the school is responsible for their children from the hours of 8-3.

weldoninhio

mike_ie wrote: »

Yep, because Tesco is going to load up each image and compare it to The Big Tesco Database of Local Schoolchildren that every store has. Rather than the common sense approach of thinking "well the kids are wearing an XYZ school uniform, maybe we should inform them." I assumed that I wouldn't have to connect the dots for people - it seems that assumption was an overreach on my part.

Same parents jumping up and down about the school's decision are the same parents jumping up and down saying that the school is responsible for their children from the hours of 8-3.

Or it could go through the 30 mins or so of footage from lunchtime and pass the images of the trouble makers on to the school or just bar them. Troublemakers get banned, Tesco makes money off the non-troublemakers. Everyones a winner.

Edit: Have Tesco got a Big Tesco Database of people in civilian clothing to stop regular shop-lifters/troublemakers??

moral

mike_ie wrote: »

Yep, because Tesco is going to load up each image and compare it to The Big Tesco Database of Local Schoolchildren that every store has. Rather than the common sense approach of thinking "well the kids are wearing an XYZ school uniform, maybe we should inform them." I assumed that I wouldn't have to connect the dots for people - it seems that assumption was an overreach on my part.

Same parents jumping up and down about the school's decision are the same parents jumping up and down saying that the school is responsible for their children from the hours of 8-3.

We were never allowed hang around the town when we were in school, it had no adverse effects on us, quite the opposite, transition year students set up a mini-company and made a nice profit from it.

My children will be going to a secondary school in a couple of years and this will be a deciding factor on what school. When I send my child to school, its to learn, their lunch break should only be long enough to eat their lunch and not waste time hanging around the town.

They only ones complaining about this would have little to complain about if they got their act together and sent their children to school prepared for the day i.e. with a sufficient packet lunch.

blackwhite

ScumLord wrote: »

They don't have to just target them when their in school uniforms, if it's a relatively small town the people working there probably have kids of their own and know the trouble makers. Wait for one to come in with a parent and then enforce the ban in front of the parent.

You'd be doing well to find many trouble-making teenagers who regularly go to Tesco with their parents

ScumLord wrote: »

Yes, schools started that craic during my school years, it came in with the boom when schools started to ape expensive American schools in everything but the quality of the education they gave out.

It was happening in my old school long before the boom, and I doubt anyone ever called that place posh or would have imagined that they were trying to "ape" any expensive schools. Just trying to keep the school's reputation from getting any worse than it was.

They just had a blanket policy that you were representing the school whilst wearing the uniform, and so anything you did whilst wearing it would be subject to the school rules.

Nadser

If Tesco are banning the kids, that's fair enough but how dare a school dictate what pupils can or cannot do in their own time!

Gatling

Nadser wrote: »

If Tesco are banning the kids, that's fair enough but how dare a school dictate what pupils can or cannot do in their own time!

There on school time and under the care of the school during school days and hours ,

I used to deal with this a hell of a lot working in various outlets where kids are caught shoplifting in school uniform ,
2 phone calls
1x Gardai
1x School principal