Police were called to a secondary school after 50 pupils were turned away at the gates for having the wrong uniform.
Children at Hartsdown Academy in Margate, Kent, were sent home on their first day back of the new term after they were deemed to be wearing inappropriate clothing.
Pictures taken from outside the gates show dozens of pupils on the road by the school grounds as parents protested to vent their “disgust” at the school.
Kent Police confirmed they were called to a “disturbance” at the school in George V Avenue just after 11am.
Witnesses told the Standard some parents "shouted" and "screamed" at school staff at the height of the incident.
Mother Latasha Whiting hit out at the school after her 15-year-old daughter was shunned at the gates for wearing the wrong skirt and shoes.
She posted on Facebook: “Absolutely disgusted with Hartsdown school.
“I go everywhere to buy my 15 year old daughter a school skirt that don't go up round her ears because of how long her legs are.
“I find her one that covers most of her thighs but she gets turned away at the gates! Also for her shoes, but when I confront two of the other teachers, they say there okay!
“My husband had a 12 year old begging him to take her home as she couldn't get hold of her parents!!
“Shocking no children's welfare was being thought about this morning, just the headmaster trying to make an impact on his first day! Sorry wrong kind of impact in my mind!!”
Head teacher Matthew Tate defended the school’s new uniform policy, saying most parents were in favour of it.
He told Kent Online: "We wrote to parents to say we would be ensuring our uniform policy is adhered to and that if children were not in perfect uniform today they would be sent home.
"The majority of our parents are pleased with that.
“They feel the school needs to be better for their children and I've had several parents tell me how pleased they are that they can see that actually we want to be different.
"We want to be a school that they can be proud of sending their children to.
"There is a minority of parents who are not happy with that and I understand it has inconvenienced some. A few have lost their temper.
"The parents who have been here protesting for two hours when they could have popped home and got things sorted."
A Kent Police spokesman said: "At 11.03am police received a report of a disturbance at an educational establishment in George V Avenue, Margate.
"Officers attended and no offences have been disclosed."
