9:51am Thursday 3rd February 2005
By Ruth Holmes
A VIOLENT craze which involves slapping an innocent victim around the face has caught on in St Albans' schools.
The so called "happy slappers" attack their peers or complete strangers while an accomplice captures the action on a camera phone.
The craze has become such a problem in Marlborough School, Watling Street, that a warning has been posted in the weekly newsletter telling pupils they will be excluded from school if they are caught happy slapping.
Headteacher Annie Thomson writes: "A minority of our students have recently been indulging in a particularly offensive activity commonly known as Happy Slap.
"As you can imagine it hurts, causes distress and is not the type of activity we wish to endorse at the school."
The headteacher warned that if pupils are caught slapping someone they will be suspended from school for a fixed period.
Two students have already been sent home for breaching the ban last week.
Assistant headteacher Dave Bridgeland said: "Maybe it is fun for the person doing the slapping but for the person who is receiving the slap it can be very frightening.
"It is a form of bullying and intimidation and in some cases even a kind of assault.
"We have tried to stamp it out before somebody got hurt."
Other local schools have also said they are aware of the problem and are clamping down on it.
Assistant headteacher at Beaumont school, Mr David Grant, said: "It seems to be a bit of a national trend.
"We are aware of it and we have put things in place to make sure that this is not happening here."
The craze, which has already swept across London, has seen teenagers plaguing commuters on trains and buses in the capital.
What started as child's play has escalated in some cases to more serious assaults and robberies.
In one case an 18-year-old on the underground was asked if he was having a nice day and then slapped. His 15-year-old sister was punched in the face.
The phenomenon has coincided with government plans for a zero-tolerance approach to disruption in the classroom, announced on Tuesday.
Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said problems such as mobile phones in schools were stopping children from learning.
Mobile phones have already been banned in some schools in the St Albans district.
Francis Bacon headteacher Jacqui Verrall said that any mobiles found in the school are confiscated and must be reclaimed by parents.
She stressed that the school rejected use of the term "happy slapping" and were treating any incidents of this sort as assault.
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