One cyclist stood his ground and refused to engage with a police officer, after the headmistress at his step-son’s school reported him on the grounds that there had been “some complaints” about him.
Video of the heated exchange was posted on social media, presumably by the cyclist himself, and has gone viral, the Daily Mail notes. Reactions to it are mostly supportive, saying the man knew his rights and was thus able to talk down to an aggressive, entitled police officer.
According to the publication, the clash occurred just outside the gates at Lynn Grove Academy secondary school in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, UK. The man had arrived on his bike to pick up his step-son and was wearing a face mask because it was cold. You can see the boy in the video too, and the Mail says he was also wearing a mask because he would leave on his bike, with his step-dad.
The video begins when the police officer has already approached the cyclist: apparently, the headmistress told him that the cyclist had been rude to her. She can’t decide whether that’s his offense, or the fact that some parents had complained by phone about the fact that he’s wearing a face mask outside the school gates.
She refuses to speak on camera about what the cyclist has done wrong, and if you watch the video at the bottom of the page, you will see that the cop can’t explain that either. The cyclist repeatedly asks what his crime was, but he can’t get a direct answer. Eventually, after informing the cop that “you work for me” and being told he wasn’t detained, the cyclist turns to leave.
That’s when the cop uses sarcasm to lure him back into the spat. The two go back and forth for a while longer, before the cyclist eventually decides to leave for good.
He went on social media to say that the school informed him he wasn’t allowed on school premises anymore – and that his son too was banned from wearing a face mask outside school.
“The school says that we agreed that the child wears appropriate clothing to and from school and they have since today said that the mask is inappropriate clothing and they have threatened to give my stepson a detention if he is seen wearing it out of school property,” the cyclist wrote, as cited by the Mail.
“They say that he is representing the school but yet he has none of the badges of the school any time he is going to and from school as he wears a coat over his uniform.. Its a childish retaliation and in my eyes it’s bullying,” he adds.
A spokesperson for the school says that no one is allowed to wear face masks on school premises, but this doesn’t apply for parents waiting at the gate. Neither can they ban the use of face masks by their students on their way to and from school, the statement adds.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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