Mornington Secondary College on Tuesday sent home student on examination day to enforce its dress code, even though the socks they wore was the official school colour, The Age Victoria reports.
A parent to one of the students, Sophie Newton, said the school did not take the right decision, especially because her daughter was a first time offender.
"They were the right-coloured socks, with the exception of a brand name on the top," Newton said.
"[My daughter] has never received a warning for wearing these socks in the past."
She believed the school should handed the erring students a warning, instead of barring them from the examination.
"I would have thought that a warning in this case would have been sufficient under the circumstances.
"Year 11 students are already under enough pressure. I believe there is a time and place to pick battles and I feel that [Tuesday] was most certainly not one of them."
In her letter of complaints to the school, Newton said the action was unjustified.
"I honestly feel that sending a good student home for such an insignificant and minor incident is both demoralising and inappropriate.
"I would have understood if she was caught cheating."
The College Principal, Sarah Burns, agreed that the staff who enforced the decision did not time it well.
"The timing of the staff member was not ideal," Burns said.
"It's unfortunate that a good student has been caught up with the others, but she was not in uniform.
"We have high expectations of academic achievement, behaviour and uniform."
She apologised to Newton and promised that her daughter and all the affected students would be allowed to sit for the exams at a later date.