Police have been called in after a top-rated primary school was ‘intimidated’ into dropping a ban on Muslim girls wearing hijabs.
St Stephen’s in Newham, East London, was bombarded with thousands of emails – many allegedly abusive or threatening violence against staff – after it ruled that girls aged under eight should not wear headscarves.
In the face of the protests, the chairman of the governors, Arif Qawi, announced his resignation on Friday and the school said it had reversed its ban after ‘speaking to the school community’.
However, insiders said staff had been bullied by an ‘orchestrated’ campaign of up to 500 emails a day from across the country, with some messages falsely branding head teacher Neena Lall, 50, a ‘paedophile’ who ‘deserved what she had coming’.