The media gave great publicity a few weeks ago to a recent landmark case in which it was determined that schools which have uniform policies will have to re-assess the way school rules are enforced. This followed a court ruling where the Court of Appeal held that a Muslim girl's human rights were violated by a school's insistence on its dress code. This of course was very good news for a number of Muslim girls who will be allowed to wear what they consider to be the traditional Muslim jilbab but will effect very few Gooners. Of far more importance to young Arsenal fans is the more recent news. In yesterday's very much lower profile court case at Highbury County Court Judge James Carter has surprised numerous Religious Leaders by declaring that the very act of being a ‘Gooner' can now be legitimately determined as being a member of an officially recognised religion. Apparently this is a result of a recent reinterpretation of the E C Laws that provide the legal definition of the words ‘religion and religious'. Judge Carter has further horrified Educational Legal Specialists when the full implications of this ruling were realised. The upshot of which, according to Barrister Dennis Evans of Leftbach Legal Services, an organisation which was specifically formed to advise Head Teachers and Governing bodies in England and Wales is as follows: ‘So far as the law stands as at the 1st. of April 2005 it would appear that as Arsenal fans, or ‘Gooners' as his Honour referred to them, children are now perfectly entitled to wear their own brand of religious apparel at school. Quite obviously this would only apply to any approved first team replica shirts or kits, although this could arguably mean they wouldn't even be required to be wearing the very latest shirt'
So there you go kids, it is now officially street legal to wear Arsenal shirts at school and there is not a thing the teachers can do about it. Due warning should be given however that this only applies to official replica shirts and does not allow the wearing of other Arsenal related clothes such as T-shirts or tracksuits whether they be official or unofficial. Interesting to note that so far this ruling only applies to ‘Gooners' and so far effects followers of no other football teams, although numerous further test cases are expected very shortly.