An 11 year old boy who dressed as a character from ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ was banned from his school’s World Book Day celebrations, according to a report by the BBC.

Schoolboy Liam Scholes turned up to Sale High School dressed as Christian Grey from the erotic novel, donning a grey suit, an eye mask and a length of thin rope. Amid the myriad Harry Potters and Hobbits, the costume was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but the school deemed the outfit to be offensive and said that Liam could not take part in the official photographs.

Fifty Shades of Grey
Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey, whom the schoolboy dressed as for World Book Day

His mother Nicola Scholes told BBC Radio 5 Live on Friday morning that the school’s officials had no sense of humour, adding: “They told him he had to change his character — that he had to be James Bond, who is actually very promiscuous and kills people. Personally, I’m more offended by a murderer.”

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She also pointed out the double standards in the school’s policy concerning the suitability of outfits. She felt her son’s outfit was less offensive than others - that it was somehow “appropriate for a teacher to dress up as a serial killer” and “acceptable for kids to dress up as people that kill others” and “come in with [toy] guns”.

When asked why she felt it was suitable for her son to dress as a character from such an explicit book, she replied that while her son had neither read the book nor seen the film, secondary school children “all talk about sex” and that all her son’s friends recognised the reference, so no harm could have been done.

The school has been unavailable for official comment on the incident. It’s just another instalment in the stream of humorous real-life events in the wake of the film adaptation’s release last month. In the States, there have been a number of stories of couples having sex and individuals being caught masturbating during theatre screenings.

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