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Police were called today after fifty children were sent home on their first day back at school for wearing the wrong uniform.

Students were left 'stranded' outside the gates of Hartsdown Academy in Kent after being turned away under the new headmaster's policy.

One furious mum, Latasha Whiting, told Mirror Online that kids were 'in the road', with cars 'beeping and swerving', as the 'ridiculous' rule was enforced.

She added that her own daughter was sent home by staff for having a 'short' skirt - while a young girl knocked on her husband's window to ask for a ride home.

She said: "It was ridiculous. There were kids in the road, cars beeping and swerving. They [staff] didn't let them into the school to make calls.

(Image: SWNS)

(Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting)

"A 12-year-old girl knocked on my husband's window and asked him to take her home because she couldn't get in touch with her parents.

"She didn't even know him. He told her to go and ask a teacher but she said she had and she'd been dismissed."

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(Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting)

Latasha said her 15-year-old daughter, who is 5ft 10ins and has ADHD, was turned away from the school gates for having a 'short' skirt.

She said: "She's 5ft 10ins with very long legs. To find a skirt that's not short on her is almost impossible. I got hers from the adult range at New Look."

The angry mum travelled to Hartsdown Academy herself after hearing from her husband how the teenager had been sent home.

She said that, when she arrived, she asked headteacher Matthew Tate to give her the details of the exact skirt she should purchase for her child.

(Image: Sian Williams) (Image: Sian Williams)

However, he apparently refused to do so.

She added that another mum was told her child's trousers were too tight - so 'shoved her hand up them' to prove to staff that they weren't.

In total, around 50 pupils were turned away from the school in Margate this morning for a variety of uniform infractions.

Outraged parents protested for two hours outside the building before police stepped in to try to diffuse tensions.

Mr Tate, however, claims to have warned parents this would happen before the summer holidays.

He said: "We wrote to parents to say we would be ensuring our uniform policy is adhered to and that if children were not in perfect uniform today they would be sent home.

"The majority of our parents are pleased with that.

(Image: Hartsdown.co.uk) (Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting)

"They feel the school needs to be better for their children and I've had several parents tell me how pleased they are that they can see that actually we want to be different.

"We want to be a school that they can be proud of sending their children to.

"There is a minority of parents who are not happy with that and I understand it has inconvenienced some.

"A few have lost their temper.

"The parents who have been here protesting for two hours when they could have popped home and got things sorted."

The academy's on site police community support officer called in colleagues to help resolve the conflict.

Mr Tate added: "The police were passing by and dropped in to help us encourage parents to go home and get the uniform sorted."

(Image: SWNS)

(Image: SWNS)

This afternoon, some social media users defended the uniform policy.

Paul Imms wrote on Facebook: "Good on the head. People moaning because they don't want to follow rules."

Meanwhile, Stephen Groom said: "Good!!! Proper uniform should be enforced!!!!"

A third user added: "Other schools need to take note of Hartdowns new head teacher, someone who's willing to enforce rules properly."

However, mum Sharon King lashed out at the policy after her young son, William, was turned away because of his shoes.

William, 11, was involved in a car accident last year, and had to have a hip replacement, which causes him pain and leaves him needed physiotherapy.

Sharon sent her son to school in all-black Nike Air Max trainers, on the advice of his doctor, but the new head teacher told her the shoes were unacceptable.

(Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting)

Sharon said: "William has to wear trainers because of his hip, wearing normal shoes really hurts him.

"My daughter in Year 11 has been wearing the same trainers as William was in for three years as she has joint pain.

"I sent my daughter home to get William's scruffy old shoes because they wouldn't let him in wearing trainers.

"Mr Tate said he'd rather William was in pain and wearing school shoes than wearing trainers in front of other parents, but then afterwards said to me that my kids would be okay in trainers.

"Now he's lost respect before he's even started - it's his first day, and he's backed himself into a corner and done the damage.

"It was Year Seven's first day and loads of them were in floods of tears, sobbing outside the gates.

(Image: Google)

"He should have been lenient for their first day and just sent them home with a letter of what was wrong for tomorrow.

"I had to take my daughter and buy her a new skirt because they don't have a standard one but hers wasn't suitable.

"When I took her back to school, the kids were outside chanting because the teachers wouldn't let them through the gates.

"Driving back through the town centre two hours later I saw at least a few hundred Hartsdown students walking around - not from any other schools.

"The issue isn't the uniform, because I totally agree with it.

"The problem is that he handled it like a gestapo."