In a ridiculous example of the world having gone mad, a "strict" Catholic school turned away a trainee teacher within minutes of her arriving, because she had tattoos all over her body. 26-year-old Charlotte Tumilty had been interviewed in person for a role at St John Vianneys Primary School in Hartlepool, but for some reason they appear to have been so shocked by her not-that-unconventional appearance, they sent her home.

Such segregation of a person because of the way they look on the outside - something that most definitely would not have affected her ability to teach children - illustrates just how shallow some people can still be. Apparently Charlotte's tattoos did not match up to the "professional image" the school intended to portray, despite the fact that they clearly didn't see that as an issue when originally offering her the role.

Trainee teacher sent home from work because of her tattoospinterest
Twitter/Charlotte Tumilty
Charlotte, who took out her piercings for her first day

Charlotte told how "a woman asked to speak to me in the office and said 'what we need to discuss is you can still see a bit of your neck tattoo peaking out of your top?'

''I suggested wearing a higher-necked top. The woman said 'that's not the point, it's a strictly Catholic school and tattoos are forbidden'."

According to the trainee teacher, the school then contemplated making her cover up the inked images with plasters and bandages. But wouldn't that be more likely to disturb the children - effectively having a human mummy teaching them - than if she was just there with her purple hair and her tattoos, being who she is and doing a good job?

More than anything, this incident ignites concerns that the message being passed on to the young and mouldable children who attend the school, is one that there are strict boundaries of what is considered 'normal'. In most extreme cases, this could potentially manifest itself into a child having a destructive complex, believing it is not ok to wear what they want, and to be who they naturally want to be.

Charlotte has quite rightly spoken about how distressed she is at the situation; "they are prejudiced against me because they could see a few tattoos," she said.

But the school disagree that they have done anything wrong. Deputy head Martin Boagey said on the issue, "we have a code of conduct, part of which requires members of staff with tattoos to cover them up.

"We do have members of staff with tattoos, and they are happy to abide by the code of conduct. On her arrival at school to take up her placement, Charlotte Tumilty politely asked to consider how best to cover up her tattoos and it was suggested that she should. At no point was she ever told that she could not work here."

So it remains to be seen how the situation will work itself out, but we hope with a bit of lenience from the school for Charlotte to just be herself, and some compliance to some of the more reasonable school conduct rules  from Charlotte, the two should be able to come to a compromise.

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Catriona Harvey-Jenner
Features Editor

Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. news, features and health. The route to her heart is a simple combination of pasta and cheese (somewhat ironic considering the whole health writing thing), and she finds it difficult to commit to TV series so currently has about 14 different ones on the go.