English School Bans High-End Winter Coats to Stop ‘Poverty-Shaming’

A Northern England high school has banned students from wearing expensive coats because of the idea that the high-end items might shame lower-class students. According to CNN, Woodchurch High School sent home a letter to parents earlier this month and explained that Canada Goose and Moncler would not be allowed. 

The note said that the school was “mindful that some young people put pressure on their parents to purchase expensive items of clothing,” but it still asked them to consider the new policy in their shopping. The ban begins after Christmas, when students will typically return with fresh winter outfits. 

Headteacher Rebekah Phillips told CNN that the move was a way to get rid of a distraction she had seen in the school.  

“These coats cause a lot of inequality between our pupils,” Phillips said. “They stigmatize students and parents who are less well off and struggle financially.”

Phillips added that former students praised the move, and that one former student agreed that school shouldn’t be a place where a student’s “economic background is rubbed in their faces and distracts them from learning.” CNN adds that nearly half of Woodchurch High comes from “a disadvantaged background.”

One school in Japan did the inverse of this rule. Back in February, one public elementary school in a fashion-forward district requested its students buy $730 Armani uniforms. That code wasn’t as well received as Woodchurch’s.