Anyone elses primary banned pork products in lunchboxes?

[Wonderstuff]

This seems totally barmy to me, maybe I am missing something. My neices primary has banned ham sandwiches so as not to offend Muslims.
My niece's favorite is ham, she has just gone back to school after having d+v for a couple of weeks, so sever that she was hospitalised and she has lost a bit of weight, so her mum, sent her in with ham sandwiches. DN had to eat them with the teachers and wasn't allowed to go out and play with the others! Earlier in the term she had sandwiches confiscated. Seems odd to me.

Surely political correctness gone mad!

That sounds bonkers..
Do they make the meat eaters sit seperately from the veggie children too? - so not to offend vegetarians

Sounds like something that has been blow out of all proportion to me - maybe a gentle suggestion that processed meat every day isn't really very good for you translated as 'Banned Ham'

I agree with Moondog.

It won't be because it might offend somebody.

A primary down the road from us has just banned ham too, but because of the high levels of nitrates and salt not because of the muslim children

I promise I'm not stirring! Brothers ex is quite dim and may well have got the wrong end of the stick and ran with it, I thought it was utterly bonkers and just wanted to know if it had happened elsewhere. The health thing makes more sense, it won't be 'nice' ham we're talking about so may well be a processed meat thing.

Message withdrawn

You should highlight to the school that respect for diversity fosters acceptance and mutual understanding.

By forcing someone that loves ham, not to eat it, because someone else has a religious duty not to, the school are actually making racial/religious discrimination more likely and are in my opinion, likely to CAUSE a lot more problems than they seek to rectify using the ban.

If I were a parent, I would like to hear the headteacher explain, in writing, what exactly they are seeking to achieve by banning pork?

My child is not at school, however, I would complain to whoever governs schools regarding this decision, because, it is discriminatory.

If it is banned because the school think it is unhealthy to eat processed meat, who are they to decide if you have opted for a packed lunch?

Parents should be able to decide what to feed their children after consideration of the facts available.

Either way, I would request a written letter to all parents explaining the decision, written by the headteacher.

I am as certain as I can be that no school in this country has banned ham sandwiches because they might offend Muslims. This is the sort of ridiculous rumour that forments racial tension and should NOT be perpetuated. In two weeks time it'll be reported as fact in the Daily Mail.

Can't decide whether I want this kept bumped so that the fact that it's rubbish will be visible to all, or let it vanish so that the Daily Mail won't use it as the basis for a baa baa green sheep/person hole cover/black coffee story!

But everyone KNOWS that no one's allowed to have Christmas trees in their windows any more because of you! Oh, and next year all girls in Primary school are going to have to wear veils. And what you've done to school carol services doesn't bear thinking about........

Which is doubtless what 99.9999999999% of Muslims would also like to do Riven. Which makes all these stories so bloody farcical. Offices full of twats in suits taking turns at being Muslim and deciding what things are going to offend them this week. Have any of these stories ever ever actually cited even one Muslim person being offended? Of course they haven't. Because no one in the UK gives a toss what anyone else does as long as they aren't made to do it as well if they dont want to. Same as anything in life and applies to anyone. Bunch of tossers the lot of them (people in suits obviously).

Rant over. I fear I may have gone off on a tangent somewhat...

and breathe!

I expected to open this thread and read that pork products had been banned because of swine flu.

we had a request at school last year to change the christmas disco because it was offensive to muslims. the request came from a muslim parent btw. But in the next breath they asked that we do something to celebrate eide. double standards?

The problem is that there is always a small minority of people who have these extreme views (in any culture) and it only takes one to claim that they are offended for people to get scared and make radical changes in case we cause offence to all.

I think this whole idea of banning things from lunch boxes for whatever reason has got completely out of hand. It's all about moderation, surely?

LOL, my kids occasionally have ham sandwiches at nursery and we are in a Muslim country (and have to buy pork products in a special section of the supermarket)- never been an issue (neither teacher nor teaching assistants are Muslim, otherwise I might not send ham, at least at this age)

doubt it - my sister and her family lived in dubai lasy year - they attended a corporate dinner at bil's firm with majority musmim employees - were greeted by a huge hog roast in the middle of the table; they are veggie so were not best pleased to have paid a lot of money for a side dish of salad

the last bit sounds pretty unlikely, zebramummy, the big roasts are usually lamb here - and I have never seen pork offered at a public meal other than slightly separated and where there is a choice.

desertgirl - no was absolutely true i'm afraid - wasn't a public meal anyway, more a bankers' gathering where families were invited