01-22-2007, 07:02 AM
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Kid gets banned for wearing a hoodie
Quote:
Hoodie toddler gets store ban
A GRANDMOTHER has branded as "pathetic and laughable" a shop's policy on hoodies - after her two-year-old grandson was asked to remove his hood.
Brenda Cowper, 54, has hit out at her local corner shop, Monkton Road Stores, after her grandson, Jay, was asked to take down his hood.
Mrs Cowper, a house care assistant at York Hospital said her husband took Jay into the store at about 7pm on Friday night.
The store is only five minutes from Mrs Cowper's home in Healey Grove, off Elmfield Avenue, and as it was a cold and windy night the toddler was muffled up in his brown Next jacket with a furry hood.
Mrs Cowper said: "No sooner had they got inside than the shop-keeper said to my husband could you ask the little boy to remove his hood. My husband said, he's only two-and-a-half, I don't think he's going to rob you. I don't think he could believe it, and my husband refused to take it down as a matter of principle."
The episode meant Mr Cowper then had to drive to the Spar on Huntington Road to get the cigarettes he had gone out for.
In November, Monkton Road Stores hit the headlines over its stringent policy against people wearing hoodies.
Back then The Press reported that a middle-aged nurse was refused her morning paper for wearing a lambswool hooded cardigan.
Lorraine Robinson, of Geldof Road, vowed to boycott the shop which she had been supporting for 40 years, saying the owner had unjustly tarred her with the same brush as yobs.
Lorraine, 47, said she was insulted to be asked to remove her hood. It was covering her head because it was cold and had been raining.
On that occasion, staff at Monkton Road Stores defended their actions, saying "no hoods" notices were clearly posted around the shop, and were necessary because of ongoing problems with troublemakers. They also insisted the rules applied to everyone.
Mrs Cowper said: "I can understand their point because there are a lot of kids that cause trouble down there, but when it's a two-year-old it's a bit pathetic and I think most people would just think it's laughable really."
Staff at the store said no one was available to comment.
How controversy has clung to a fashionable garment
HOODED tops - known as hoodies - have come to be viewed by some as a symbol of social disorder.
The hoodies first made national headlines in 2005 when Blue Water Shopping Centre in Kent issued a complete ban.
The Children's Society called it "blatant discrimination based on stereotypes and prejudices".
But Bluewater said the move was not just directed at children.
The shopping centre said it was not a complete ban, but an attempt to clamp down on what it saw as intimidating behaviour.
Its guidelines stated groups or individuals wearing clothing which deliberately obscured the face, such as hooded tops or baseball caps, would not be allowed.
Bluewater property manager Helen Smith said: "We're very concerned that some of our guests don't feel at all comfortable in what really is a family environment."
Then last year, Conservative Party leader David Cameron urged the public to embrace youth culture with his "hug a hoodie" speech.
Mr Cameron claimed teenagers who hide under hooded tops are trying to "blend in" rather than appear threatening.
And in May last year the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, came to the defence of youths who wear hoodies - and he proved the point by donning one himself.
Dr Sentamu wore a red hooded top as he addressed a Bradford Diocese conference on youth work.
The archbishop wore the hoodie given to him by teenagers in the Diocese of Birmingham.
He asked people not to judge those who wear hoodies, adding that "99 per cent of those who wear hoodies are law-abiding citizens".
York press
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This is stupid.
Asking a kid to remove his hood..He ain't gonna rob a store..He is 2 years old
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