The mother of one of the three Co Offaly boys involved in a controversy over their haircuts insisted today she would be taking legal advice over the issue.
Sean Treacy (16) and two other schoolboys - Enda Carroll (15) and Andrew Kelly (16) - were banned from sitting their Junior Certificate at Tullamore College over their tight haircuts.
Anne Marie Treacy
Principal Edward McEvoy said the boys' haircuts had breached the school's code of conduct.
Arrangements are being put in place to allow the three to sit their exams in isolation at a special secluded exam centre from Monday.
Sean rejected the offer of the secluded exam room and is to sit his exams at a school in nearby Clara.
Anne Marie Treacy said today she was angry at the "ridiculous" decision and claimed it has badly affected her son's exam preparations.
"I think it is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous," she said.
Ms Treacy claimed her son had been singled out and that she had been told there were up to 20 other pupils doing exams at the school with similar haircuts.
She said she would be taking legal advice on the issue. "I think it is an insult to put each of the boys in an isolated unit; they don't have a contagious disease. I think it was an out and out insult," she told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"I'm not prepared to let it rest at this particular moment in time and, as adamant as I am, Mrs Carroll is completely and totally up in arms over the way she has been treated and that the way her son has been violated," Mrs Treacy said.
The family of Andrew Kelly have yet to make any comment on the controversy.
The State Examinations Commission has said it was satisfied arrangements were being made available for the students to sit the exams and described it as a local issue. A spokeswoman said rules of dress for exam candidates was a matter for school authorities.