Parents of school children in western Funen are demanding answers after reports that a school leader forced young boys to undress in front of their classmates. 

 

Regional broadcaster DR Fyn reports that the Strandmølle School in Assens had a Christmas party and told all kids that they should wear a Santa hat lest they face ‘punishment’. 

 

Two witnesses told the broadcaster that two boys from the youngest classes who did not have a hat on where brought in front of an assembly, where the school leader told both kids to get into a garbage sack. 

 

The school leader then took their shirts off and told the boys to take off their pants. At one point the school leader joked with a pair of scissors, saying he would cut the boys’ penises off. 

 

The boys then had their garbage sacks removed and were revealed in front of their classmates wearing only their underwear. 

 

A school official confirmed the incident and said it was a joke that went awry. 

 

“It is correct that it happened and that type of humour is something that those of us on the board naturally do not condone,” the school’s deputy chairman of the board, Thomas Hald, told DR Fyn. 

 

Hald said that the school leader has apologized and the school board considers that the end of it. 

 

But DR Fyn said that parents have filed sought guidance from the children’s advocacy group Børns Vilkår. 

 

An organisation spokeswoman told DR Fyn that the school’s response was insufficient. 

 

“Some children have been violated and threatened. In this kind of situation the children and their families don’t get any kind of help because all energies are used on closing the system in on itself and taking the adults into consideration instead of the children,” Bente Boserup told DR Fyn. 

 

Boserup said that her organisation has encouraged the involved parents to report the school to the police and late on Thursday afternoon a local police spokesman said that they had received an official complaint. 

 

The police will speak with the filer of the complaint on Monday, DR Fyn said.