School allows beachwear in hot classrooms
Pupils at a German school were allowed to strip down to beachwear after the heating system stuck on full power.
The piping hot radiators left classrooms sweltering in 86 degrees, even with all of the windows open.
So staff announced children could wear swimwear – including bikinis and swimming shorts – in class until the radiators could be fixed.
The Anne Frank primary school, in Linden, only recently had the expensive digital heating system installed and experts have been unable to identify the problem.
School headmaster Bruno Kraft said: “We have been having problems ever since they installed the new, fully digitalized heating control system.”
Wedding painting ‘unsuitable for gays’
A painting of a bride and groom has been removed from a register office in case it offends gay couples tying the knot.
The wedding scene, and another of Romeo and Juliet, has been ruled unsuitable for single sex civil partnership ceremonies, which start next month.
Register Officer Janet Taubman said: “We had two pictures up before. There was a picture of a groom signing the register with a young bride and the other was of Romeo and Juliet on a swing.
“They were innocent but the new paintings are less likely to offend. We are looking forward to the civil partnerships. People have been waiting a long time.”
The old pictures at Liverpool Register Office have been replaced with landscapes while the Wedding Room has been renamed The Ceremony Suite.
Liverpool City Council said: “The world’s moved on. It’s not just weddings any more – that’s why it’s the Ceremony Suite.
“This decision wasn’t based on the new civil partnerships. They do all kinds of things – citizenship ceremonies, non-religious naming ceremonies and heterosexual partnership ceremonies.
“The wedding pictures did not reflect any of these. They have been moved to a more prominent position in the reception area.”
Police leave drugs in bag of girl, 10
A drugs squad officer left a packet of speed in a 10-year-old schoolgirl’s bag after a drugs awareness lesson.
The police officer put three packets of the drug in her bag but after the demonstration took back only two, reports the Mirror.
Kia Butterfield did not find the amphetamine until she got back to her home.
Her mom Amanda, 33, said: “I still can’t get my head around this – an officer gave my daughter a bag of hard drugs. If your kids aren’t safe from drugs on a day out with police, when are they safe?
“My three-year-old was playing at the table where those drugs were. She could have mistaken it for a bag of sherbet and swallowed it. That could have been fatal.”
The officer put the drugs in Kia’s bag to demonstrate how sniffer dogs worked during a seminar for primary schoolchildren at a Butlins camp.
The youngster said: “I thought he had taken out all the drugs when he handed my bag back. I got home and put it on the kitchen table near where my sister was playing.
“An hour later I went to get a pencil and found this plastic bag with powder in. I knew it was the drugs, so I told my dad.”
Chief Superintendent Dave Wheeler of Lincolnshire Police said: “It was a training exercise for the dog and education for the children, but what happened shouldn’t have happened.”