Madam,

I’m not at all surprised that your article on Ysgol Penweddig attracted so much comment but I wonder how many people, including school staff, really understand the issues here.

For many years now people from minority groups and those who feel sidelined by society have struggled to be recognised and treated fairly. Women have also worked hard to achieve equality as history has told us.

This is because those individuals who have been in a position of power have been able to abuse that power to the detriment of others and for the benefit of themselves and their peers even today. Just look at the newspapers over the last few months and the stories of the rich and famous!

These are the real issues, the issues that matter and are important. We should not be sidetracked by those who believe political correctness is the answer to dealing with what in reality is a very complex matter.

I do not believe boys in dresses has anything to do with this.

Young people should be taught and made to realise how ‘power’ can play its part in creating inequality, abusive relationships and unfairness. Detention without explanation will not educate!

I feel by dealing with this matter in the way the school did then it takes something away from all the hard work and sacrifices so many people have made over the years and are still doing for that matter, to try and make this world a fairer, more tolerant and better place to live.

Some might feel this should not have been front-page news, I disagree. If school staff have not got a grasp on the complex issues of discrimination and how the abuse of power affects people’s lives, then what have the next generation got to look forward to!

Yours etc,

Eddie Ffoulkes-Jones, Trefenter, Aberystwyth.

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