Staff walk out of school ceremony after Muslim pupil refuses to shake female teacher's hand

Five class heads made decision to leave after school refused to make pupil go home

It is not the first time handshake etiquette has been a source of controversy in Germany (Getty)

Staff at a school where a Muslim pupil refused to shake hands with a female teacher during a graduation ceremony have staged a walkout in protest.

Teachers at the Kurt-Tucholsky School in northern Germany were said to be outraged when the class mistress extended her hand to the student to congratulate him for passing Abitur sixth-form exams, and he offered his wrist to shake instead.

“No offence, my religion won’t let me do that. I do not mean to disrespect you”, the pupil said by way of explanation, according to Hamburger Morgenpost.

Headteacher Andrea Lüdtke refused to send the boy home from the event for disrespecting his teacher, which several staff members felt he should have been.

After engaging in “intense discussions” about the situation, five class teachers walked out of the ceremony and refused to return until the boy had been told to leave.

Later in the evening, seven teachers boycotted the graduation celebration ball, a decision the headmistress described as “very bad”.

Ms Lüdtke said the student was a “committed” pupil in religious studies as well as in other subjects, adding that he "in no way" held extremist views and that the school was “considering how to show that we cannot tolerate such behaviour”.

This is not the first instance in which a refusal to shake hands has created tensions between cultures in Germany.

In June, an imam took his child out of a Berlin private school after a meeting with a teacher, when he explained he wouldn't be able to shake her hand.

In response, the teacher said he should "adapt to the culture" and was harming his child’s hopes of integrating with his fellow students.

Meanwhile in May this year, Muslim schoolboys in Switzerland were told they must shake their female teachers’ hands by law or face fines of up to £3,500.

The court ruling followed an incident at a school in Therwil in April, where two pupils requested an exemption from shaking a female teacher’s hand.