PARENTS condemned a headteacher yesterday for “shutting the gates in the faces” of 20 teenage girls at a school in Kent because of the length of their skirts.

Ebbsfleet Academy head Alison Colwell sent the pupils home on the first day of term, saying that to “flash large amounts of thigh” goes against school policy.

Ms Colwell defended the school’s ban on skirts that end more than 5cm above the knee.

One mother wrote on Facebook that her daughter had been turned away for wearing a skirt that she had worn previously to the school. She claimed: “They’re letting their pupils down by turning them away for silly reasons.”

Terry Joseph, whose daughter was also sent home, said: “My biggest concern was for the safety of the children, as the school has a duty of care.

“They put out quite a few girls and boys out of the school without their parents’ knowledge. There were children walking the streets of Kent, perhaps some without anywhere to go.”