YORK is at the centre of an international row, after two teenagers were booted out of their school for buying swords in the city.

One of the students, a 16-year-old boy, bought a £30 set of three samurai swords - which have since been banned from sale.

Another student, Emily Fischbach, aged 18, is reported to have bought an 18ins Lord Of The Rings replica sword.

The youngsters, from Apple Valley and Eagan High Schools, in Minnesota, were on a choir trip to York last month, when they bought the weapons as souvenirs and gifts. A school official found the items in taped boxes and confiscated them.

Both students were sent home early and have now been expelled.

Emily Fischbach told The Press: "They are expelling me for 43 days - until the end of my final school year. I have lost faith in my school and in the school system."

Her mother, Jackie, was quoted by US media as saying: "We think it's incredibly unfair. I do understand that they need to have rules and policies, but I think it's incredibly excessive."

Brad Briggs, the father of the 16-year-old student, is quoted as saying: "The severity of the punishment didn't fit the crime here. There was no intent of violence."

Both students were kicked out by their local school board for breaching internal policies. But although buying the weapons was not illegal at the time, the incident happened only a few weeks before the sale of samurai swords was outlawed across the UK, following a lengthy campaign. Three years ago, York resident Steven Johnson was viciously attacked, and a year later another York man Daniel Rocks, then 29, went on the rampage in Acomb, threatening to cut up his neighbour and her friends "like mice".

York MP Hugh Bayley, who pressed for a ban following the incidents, said today: "This is yet another illustration of why it is right to ban the sale of swords and knifes.

"A responsible retailer should not be selling weapons like this to schoolkids, and it shows why the law had to be changed."

Emily, who was 17 at the time, said she could not remember the name of the shop and although several stores in York have sold such weapons, none today claimed to be involved in this case.

Andy Nicol, at the former Whigmaleeries shop, in Stonegate, currently undergoing a name change, said he would not have sold samurai swords so cheaply, and did not know of an 18ins Lord Of The Rings sword.

Enigma and Blue Moon in Goodramgate, and the Jorvik shop and Japanese Shop in Coppergate Walk, also denied any knowledge of the incident.

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