Bullying in school over views re Palestine and Lebanon

[AnonymouseQuestion]

My children go to a secondary school that has approx 30% Muslim kids. Many are very politicised over what is happening in the Middle East. My kids have said for a while that it’s impossible to have any view at school other than Israel is evil and is committing genocide. This week my 11 year old came home very upset as a girl had fought with him over something else then returned to the classroom and told everyone that my DC supports genocide. Friends of my DC turned on them and said they were evil, my DC said they didn’t support genocide and the child was cross about something else but people shunned them anyway. I’ve now spent the weekend with my 11 year old constantly asking me whether what’s happening in Palestine is genocide and when I said that was an over simplified and divisive question and it was best not to get into discussions of that at their age my older DC said to their younger sibling “you can’t say that, just agree loudly that it’s genocide at school or you will suffer.”

I then asked my older DC if that sort of thing was common or would be seen in their year group and they said yes. They said that one of their friends once laughed when a Jewish boy fell on the stairs and said “he deserves that as he’s Israeli” when my child said the child wasn’t Israeli just Jewish they were told to shut up and their friend group were encouraged to shun them.

Would you report this to the school? Is it common in other schools at the moment?

Yes i would report
take politics out of the equation for a minute
and it is good old plain bullying
and needs to be reported

I personally would be looking at alternative schools given you say how politicised and narrow minded much of the student body are

It is bullying and all bullying needs to be reported! Children (and adults!) must learn how to live aside people with opposite views.

That's shocking but also not surprising. I'm sorry that happened to your DC. As it's such a big dynamic in school, it may be worth having a more detailed discussion about the issues involving Israel and Palestine. Most of the kids will likely just be repeating what they have heard their parents say. You absolutely should speak to the school. The teachers should be cracking down on this. It is bullying, taken to an extreme.

You need to report your concerns. We have about 40% Muslim students in our school. There were some significant problems last Oct/Nov, but it's died down now. At that time many had Palestinian flags painted on faces and hands etc. There was graffiti, and two students were suspended for antisemitism. I don't mean anti Zionism, I mean proper antisemitic behaviour. It's much better now. The SLT had a robust response and the safety and inclusivity of all is a priority.
Please contact the school with your concerns.

Why did you detail the entire backstory? If there is bullying, especially physical, you report it. the "why" doesn't really matter.

Schools take bullying really seriously. Why haven’t you sought help for your children in school?

Yes this needs reporting.

to be honest I would not report this level of bullying in other circumstances. if in the first instance the 11 year old had been ignored because he didn’t support the right football team or the kids had laughed because someone fell and was told they deserved it because they didn’t support the right football team I probably wouldn’t report that. To me it’s more problematic because it’s about forced polarisation on a very delicate political issue and laughing at a kid because of their religion.

Because until this week they never mentioned bullying they only mentioned you had to express one view on the Middle East in order to fit in.

What an awful atmosphere for the children to have to be in day after day. Definitely report, you know this isn’t right.

Ahhhh it’s hard when you find out you’ve missed something and the children have been dealing with it alone. Explain this is the sort of thing that needs to be brought to your attention and contact school on Monday.

This sounds like a hard environment for dc

I’d raise this with the school

Yes you'd should report the anti-semitism and other issues to the school.

I don’t think I’m explaining myself well. I’m not really worried about bullying of my individual children. They are both robust and have good friend groups and if it was an afternoon of shunning due to an argument over something less delicate I wouldn’t worry. My issue is that if my DC are experiencing this then probably most children are and it’s too much to grapple with this issue at their age. The forced and unquestioning support for one side in an overseas political struggle is unhealthy and divisive and undermines the idea of a multi cultural and inclusive school.

if I report it I don’t want the school to act to address what specifically happened to my kids. I want the school to consider how to address the whole student body about the wider issue.

Yes I agree with you they should

Common in our school.

I work somewhere with a lot of Muslim students and staff and to be honest I think there is something to be said for a vague sort of ‘I don’t know an awful lot about it, I just want the suffering to stop’ which I don’t think anyone could argue with.

I would report to governors and ofsted and move school.

That's awful @AnonymouseQuestion . the image of the Muslim children laughing at a Jewish child who had fallen chills me to the bone. I would think from that they are learning such hatred at home which is so upsetting. I would report all of it to the SLT. No child should feel unsafe or pushed into parroting political views at school.

I would say that this is a common environment in some schools at the moment. I would also say that teachers/ SLT will be very aware of it, but struggling to tackle it.

I agree. It's such a difficult thing to tackle.

I’m not really worried about bullying of my individual children.
I would never tolerate bullying and it would worry me greatly if my child was being bullied. It appears what bothers you is the reason for the bullying. Very strange.
Bullying is nasty, has long lasting effects on a child and must be reported to the school. As an ex teacher of 20 years, I took bullying extremely seriously.
You should too.

@Auvergne63 that’s really unfair. The OP isn’t not taking it seriously, she just wants it addressing generally rather than specifically, which is fair enough.

The problem is I’m not sure it can be.

This is appalling but sadly not surprising as it's what is happening in many social situations. The ME situation is complex and people have different views. Our teenagers are no different they should be questioning what is happening, not just feeling under pressure to follow the crowd. This is bullying.