Children banned from wearing multi-coloured clothes

The reason for the ban is an employee at the school suffers from migraine headaches when viewing multi-coloured clothes.

“It’s a pity for the employee and as a result I’ve tried to create an appropriate work environment. The person in question has a right to be able to work,” said pre-school principal Maj Norberg to the Norrländska Socialdemokraten newspaper.

According to parents, children who come to school with “inappropriate” clothing are forced to change to monochrome clothes.

“I have a hard time believing that they have a right to make this sort of demand,” said Ulf Eriksson, head of the ‘National Association of Homes and Schools’ (Riksförbundet Hem och Skola) .

Weine Backman, head of the committee for children, education and culture for Gällivare municipality was surprised by the clothing regulation.

“As a politician I think it sounds a pretty strange to force pre-school children to have a certain type of clothing. We don’t have such regulations in this municipality,” he said.

According to migraine specialist Professor Carl Dahlöf at the Migraine Clinic in Gothenburg, it is possible for stripes to cause migraines.

“It’s true that certain people are very sensitive to different visual patterns. Some are so sensitive that even striped shirts and paving stones set in patterns can cause a migraine,” he said.

However, Dahlöf had never heard that polka-dots could be a contributing factor to the painful headaches.