‘Like caged animals’ - Parents complain of school mayhem in queue for limited Christmas dance tickets

Parents of children at an East Lothian school have complained of pushing, kicking and hair-pulling in a queue for tickets to the annual Christmas dance.

“My daughter got pushed, shoved and kicked in the queue to buy tickets,” said Stephanie Scott, 34, whose daughter and son attend Knox Academy.

Both children missed out on the chance to buy £3 tickets for the school dance, in two break-time queues which Ms Scott’s children described as a ‘shambles’.

“Their words were that the other children acted like caged animals,” she said.

The shocked Ms Scott shared a post on Facebook and received messages from seven other mothers whose children had also reported problems with the ticket queue.

One claimed her child in S1 had been ‘pushed into the wall’ in the scramble for tickets, while another said her children had reported ‘people getting squashed’ and ‘S1s getting lifted up by older kids’.

Ms Scott’s daughter Jessica, 12, was ‘stressed and hurt’ after older students ‘pulled her hair’ to get further ahead in the queue on Tuesday.

There was another opportunity to queue for tickets on Wednesday, but both Jessica and her brother Gary, 14, missed out again.

“Jessica was so upset, she has been planning going to the dance and talking about it with friends for weeks - we’ve even bought her outfit,” said Ms Scott.

“She’s just come up from primary school and didn’t know there was a limit to the tickets.”

“In a school of 800 kids there are 300 tickets, that’s less than half the school.”

“I’m sure if there had been a letter asking parents to help many would have volunteered - I would have done,” she added.

“Or there could be a dance just for the older children and all of them could get to go.”

Ms Scott’s son Gary is also disappointed not to have a ticket for the dance on Tuesday 17th.

“It would have been really good for him, but he says he’s never going back in that queue again,” Ms Scott said.

She added: “I do appreciate that teachers have it tough and there is a lot going on. But I really don’t think this system is very fair.”

A spokesperson for East Lothian Council said: “The Knox Academy Christmas school dance is a very popular event but due to the size of the hall numbers are restricted.

“This year the school community arranged an additional event with a Hallowe’en dance so more pupils had opportunities to take part.

“Whilst some pupils have missed out on getting a ticket for the Christmas dance the school strongly rejects the suggestion of any misbehaviour.”