Shoes rules in The Gap State High's student planner for 2018. Photo / Supplied
The Queensland high school that made nationwide news after banning a bunch of popular shoes has descended into chaos with reports students are planning a mass protest.
Hundreds of students have reportedly been sent to detention at Brisbane's The Gap State High School over the past two days for wearing the wrong uniform.
There are claims that 460 students were sent to detention, but the school says the figure is actually 103, news.com.au reports.
Last week, Karen Bishop was one of the many parents to vent their frustration on social media about the high school's strict uniform rules that says students "are required to wear black leather lace up school shoes, which have a heel, no greater than 20mm no lower than 5mm".
"The shoes must protect the upper side of the student's foot and have a leather upper. Slip-on, Mary-Jane, slipper style, Vans or Dr Marten style boots/shoes are NOT accepted. Proper arch support is required," it added.
If students did not comply to those requirements, they would be sent to detention, the school said.
And this week, the school started to enforce the uniform requirements, today sending hundreds of kids to detention for wearing the wrong shoes.
One parent told the ABC that senior students sitting practice Queensland Core Skills exams were called out of the classroom to be told they would be spending their lunchtime in detention.
"I just got a text from my daughter, there are 460 kids in a line from the office all the way down to the front gate," one mother told the ABC.
Yesterday morning, a student from the school claimed he had missed 45 minutes of class due to the rule and posted a video of hundreds of students looking for their passes.
"I'm very unimpressed by the new school policy's (sic), this morning I was waiting from 8:50 till after 9:45. This is incredible for our learning here missing classes just waiting for a uniform pass," he wrote.
The student then posted an update this morning claiming he had been suspended for "trying to alert the public about this". The video was removed and he has reportedly been suspended for three days.
In another Facebook post, a parent claimed their child received a three-day detention for taking a photo of the line up.
Jonathan Sri, Greens councillor for The Gabba in Brisbane, took to Facebook this morning to support the students and called the strict policy "silly".
"I think formal uniforms and strict dress codes unnecessarily repress people's ability to freely express themselves. If people choose to wear a uniform, or it's something that protects you in a specific job environment, that's another matter, but in general I think we ascribe too much status and importance to being 'smartly dressed'," he wrote.
"Long thick trousers and heavy shoes do no make sense in an Australian summer," he added.
The school landed itself in the spotlight last week when Karen Bishop revealed her daughter had received detention and was told to buy a new pair of shoes for school.
The deputy principal lifted the ban on January 30 and the school offered to buy Ms Bishop's daughter a new pair of shoes.
"He was very good in the way he dealt with me, but they will not change their stance on compliance, and the way they're getting around it by the looks of it is, they're buying a range of shoes and they'll get the kids up to pick a pair, try them on and they'll buy them. The school's paying for them," she said.
"He said they've already bought pairs of shoes for other kids. This is the first time I've heard of this happening."
After purchasing her daughter a new pair of black leather lace-up Vans, Ms Bishop was told the shoes were on the school's banned list.
"She's in Year 11 this year, and she said they were already starting to point kids out and pull kids out of the classroom in relation to their shoes," she said.
"They have a thing saying they could be facing detention if they don't comply with the rules so I'm a bit concerned. I spoke to my daughter and asked if she'd had any problems and she hasn't, but I'm not going to buy another pair of shoes."
The Gap State High School declined to comment, while the Education Department has been contacted for further comment.
Earlier, a department spokesman told the ABC a "relatively small number of students have not fully complied with uniform policy".
"Those students were provided with warnings and their families were also contacted and the school requested they rectify the issue.
"The school leadership team may take appropriate disciplinary action against students who have repeated deliberate uniform infringements," the spokesman said.
The Department of Education also said the problems with the school dress code had been raised in the final weeks of the 2017 school year, including at a full school assembly.
The following four weekly newsletters given to families also contained the dress code guide for parents.