A TEENAGER is defying the threat of an attack on her by terrorists by ignoring a warning not to wear her cadet force uniform as she travels to and from school.
Andrew Halls, headmaster of King’s College School (KCS) in Wimbledon, southwest London, wrote to the parents of pupils who belong to its Combined Cadet Force (CCF), a schools-based organisation backed by the army, to pass on the military’s advice that concerned pupils should carry their uniforms in a bag when travelling to school.
Rose Hughes, whose daughter Michelle is part of the school’s CCF, wrote back to say that the 17-year-old had no intention of bowing to the threat.
“I saw the email from the headmaster and so did my mum, but I was going to wear the CCF uniform anyway,” said Michelle, who secured 12 A* GCSEs and has represented England at athletics.
“I don’t really feel at risk. My mum wrote back to the school saying that she had not brought us up to be scared of anything.”
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The guidance was issued last December, in part as a result of the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, southeast London, in 2013. Rigby was wearing a top bearing the logo of Help for Heroes, the charity for injured service personnel, when he was attacked.
Hughes, a single mother of four from Hornchurch, Essex, who came to Britain from Nigeria, said: “I am not going to be afraid of evil frustrated people. That is the way I brought up my children. I brought them up to work hard and achieve and fulfil their potential.
“There are crazy people out there who take their frustrations in life out on other people, but this country is peaceful and I do not want my children to be afraid. Let the terrorists be afraid, they are the ones who should hide.
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“It is a wonderful privilege to be alive and to live in a country like Britain. Nothing is risk-free, but on the whole this country is safe. I want my children to be on the right side of life, to do the right thing and fulfil their potential. The only thing you have to be afraid of in life is fear.”
Michelle, who won a full scholarship to KCS last year and was previously a member of the Air Training Corps in Essex, is one of a number of CCF members at KCS who are not prepared to hide their uniforms in public.
The teenager hopes to secure a place at an Ivy League university in America and train to be a doctor, possibly with the Royal Air Force.
Halls said he felt he had to pass on the army’s advice, but respected the decision of most of his pupils to ignore it. “I respect Michelle’s mum’s message. I think it is admirable, but I would not want to enforce it if anyone did not feel comfortable with it,” he said.
“What would be really awful would be if we packed in the CCF because we thought it was risky . . . We have two boys in the sixth form on army scholarships and we are very proud of that.”
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Richard Cairns, the headmaster of Brighton College, said his pupils changed into their CCF uniforms only after they arrived at school. “You have got to put the potential risk to children first,” he said.
Thomas Garnier, the headmaster of Pangbourne College in Berkshire and who is in charge of liaison between schools with CCFs and the army, said it was for individual head teachers to interpret advice from the army.
“Given the different situations schools are in, a school in an inner city might take a different view to a school in the country where pupils board,” he said.
Garnier said the decision to wear the CCF uniform in public “does seem brave”, adding: “They have a right to say they are not afraid of this threat, to say: we are not afraid of people who want us to feel afraid.”
The CCF was created in 1948. There are more than 260 CCF units in British schools, about 200 of them in the private sector. In April last year there were almost 43,000 cadets divided into army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines sections. The Queen is captain general of the CCF.
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The members of each branch are taught an array of different skills, but all cadets learn drill and are trained to fire the L98A2 5.56mm Cadet General Purpose rifle.
The CCF is sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and says its aim is “to enable the development of personal responsibility, leadership and self-discipline”.