Bloody hell, my local school had an open letter about institutional racism signed by over 900 pupils

[Rootsofgrey]

I was looking online for reviews for local secondary schools and found an open letter signed by over 900 pupils, listing examples of racism. The 900 comprised current and former pupils, but it was from a few years ago, so most are probably former now. That is a huge number. Do you think the school would have changed its spots by now? It was addressed to the current head.

Curious as to how 900 pupils managed to sign it, unless it was some sort of co-ordinated project perhaps?

I think that says something quite fantastic about the sort of students they attract. I’d want to know how the school responded.

Why would it be difficult to get 900 signatures?

I think I'd be more interested in looking into how the school responded to this. What sort of incidents does the letter mention?

It must have taken some coordination for sure. I’d also like to know if or how the school responded, but couldn’t find this online.

Are you a current parent or a prospective one?
Either way, ask the school for their response.

@Rootsofgrey Nonsuch High School?
https://swlondoner.shorthandstories.com/protest-and-promise-race-in-sutton-schools/index.html

It was in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

School statement is here: https://www.nonsuchschool.org/page/?pid=40&title=School+statement+against+racism

Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/28/after-assembly-i-cried-surrey-school-grapples-with-race-issues

I’d take it with a pinch of salt myself: teenagers do love a bit of self-righteous drama.

Nine hundred children all said the same thing and you’re dismissing it ‘coz teenagers innit’

Wow. Just wow.

@auroramaybecheers for the links. I didn’t know there were a number of pupils addressing this in different schools. I’ve searched within the twitter link in the article for the my local school but couldn’t find it. Maybe I’m not doing it right. The school I’m talking about is on the other side of London.

There are often petitions in schools about issues that reflect what's going on in wider society - this one was in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, but there have been petitions sparked by climate change, gender politics etc. Sometimes it can be a uniform issue. Young people are connected via social media so getting large volumes of (electronic) signatures is not hard, though verifying them all as genuine students of the school is more difficult.

Ridiculous comment. Good for those speaking up. I’m sick and fucking tired of racists. They’re getting more and more bold. It’s not enough to not be racist. We must be actively anti racist.

This happened at my school a couple of years ago, and that’s exactly what happened. A huge number of pupils jumped on the bandwagon and accused a couple of lovely teachers of racism, it was in the local papers. Bearing in mind they were trying to as dramatic as possible, the two actual examples of racism that were given included one teacher calling a black girl the wrong name, it happened to be the name of another black girl in the school and she said it was racist because in her words ‘it’s like they feel like they don’t even have to learn our right names, any name will do if we’re black’. It was an honest mistake and happened once. Another teacher made the mistake of telling a black pupil that her hair looked lovely and she touched it. The girl was quoted saying ‘don’t touch our hair, we’re not in a petting zoo’. I mean maybe they did feel that way at the time, it was not meant as racist or malicious and they are treated the same as any other student, though I guess the teachers have to be more careful around them now. Anyway a similar petition was created signed by hundreds of pupils, the school took it all very seriously and organised a day when all students/parents with complaints could meet with a panel with the head/governors etc and file and discuss individual complaints against these teachers. No one turned up.

I went to this school back in the late 80s and 90s. It wasn’t very diverse then so as a black girl I was definitely in the minority. I didn’t have a positive experience there. No teacher could say my name despite me telling them
numerous times. Whenever we did topics about black culture in my class I was always called upon by the teacher to give my opinion as if I was the spokesperson to all black people. Black history was the Transatlantic Slave Trade nothing positive or empowering. Some of my peers all assumed I was “cool” because I was the only black person they knew and so was clearly an aspiring rapper or athlete when really I lived in a terraced house in Carshalton.
I hated that school. Going there was a mistake.
I read about this when it happened at the time and was so impressed at the students and their gumption.
I’m hoping anti racism has reached Cheam 6 years later.

This is a cut and paste of some examples:

1. A friendship group comprised of Black girls were told by a staff member that they ‘couldn’t walk in groups of more than three’ because they ‘looked like a gang’ and were ‘scaring teachers’.

1. In an A-Level Politics class, the teacher said ‘perhaps stereotypes are true. Maybe Black people are just more violent’. The teacher did not challenge this assumption for the remainder of the class.

1. A form tutor would often police the way Black students spoke to one another saying “you’re not in the ghetto anymore. Speak proper”.

1. In a PSCHE class on terrorism, a student wearing a hoodie was told by the teacher “keep that hoodie on, and you’ll be mixing chemicals and wearing a headscarf”.

1. An Iranian student told the head of Sixth Form that her parents did not attend university. The teacher said “it’s not uncommon from your heritage. Uni isn’t for everyone. Clearly not for you or your brother”

1. In an incident involving unidentifiable students, every Black girl in the year group was forced to write a statement stating their whereabouts at the time. One student wrote she was working on her art project and was ridiculed and not believed by teachers, though there were many who could validate her statement.

1. Black boys were repeatedly stopped and searched for possessing items such as cookies.

1. A group of friends were chastised for speaking Iranian to one another. Their Head of Year made an announcement in assembly saying ‘this is England, speak English’.

1. In a GCSE class, two Chinese students were repeatedly referred to as ‘China 1’ and ‘China 2’ by the teacher. In the same class, a Black girl was teased by the teacher for being dark-skinned.

1. Black students were not allowed to have certain hairstyles, and afro combs were repeatedly confiscated and criminalised. One student was told ‘the school is not a gang meetup’ when his afro comb was confiscated.

1. In English Literature classes, when texts contained the N word, teachers insisted on students saying it aloud on their time to read, despite the students’ discomfort. White teachers would say the N word without thinking about how this might affect Black students.

1. In an incident involving a white student and a Black student, the Black student was expelled, whilst the white student was separated from the group by being moved up a set.

1. An Indian student was wearing a cultural thread around her wrist. Her teacher cut it off in front of the whole class, stating ‘we’re a Christian school’.

1. A white student was called out of class by a teacher she did not know as she had the same name as a student in trouble. She states, ‘as soon as he saw I was white there was a look of surprise’ and when the student said she wasn’t involved, the teacher said “I thought so”. The student states ‘I have no doubt that if I was a Black student, I would not have been believed so easily’.

Please note: there were many more incidents reported. Further, our concerns are not of ‘a few bad apples’. The problem is systemic and self-perpetuating.

[school] adopts an autocratic style of leadership that produces a culture of fear and belittlement, instead of one that strives to restoratively understand the child and meet their needs.

As one white [school] alumna stated:

“In Set 4, I repeatedly saw the Black students in my class be met by teachers with suspicion and immediate assumptions of desire to cause trouble. This was in response to either nothing at all or "behaviours" as small as not having "correct equipment", standing in literally any certain way or (often) perceived disrespectful tone.

These were “behaviours” that would not even solicit a reaction if committed by white students. Black students’ education was repeatedly interrupted by needless and damaging reports to IER, being sent out of class and petty arguments initiated by the teachers. In sum, Black students were not given a fair chance by those who were meant to do right by them. “

Those examples are fucking awful.

You could be talking about the 70s there; why are these attitudes still around 50+ years later, when racism was being addressed then?

Why are you so sure those aren’t racist incidents? They certainly look that way to me!

Those examples are much more concerning to me than simply knowing 900 pupils signed a petition about it. In principle I'd certainly think it possible that 2/3 of pupils could sign something complaining about a grievance that was a flash in the pan.

Although a couple of the examples could be misinterpretations if in isolation, as a whole it's damning. The sheer number of incidences, plus the seriousness of so many of them is deeply worrying.

I'm quite impressed by the pupils collating that information and organising the petition. I hope they sent a copy to the governors and to Ofsted. They deserve to be heard.

They are awful. The letter doesn’t separate out which ones are historic and which ones are more recent, so I don’t know how far back some examples go.

The school seems inclusive in the policies I’ve looked at and I assume the concerns have been addressed in some way, with teachers being aware too, which may have forced a review and change in the day to day. However, that’s an assumption as I can’t find an official response. The school is very autocratic and from what I have gauged, this paragraph from the letter still seems true.

I didn’t ask about racism. I thought when it arose, it just wouldn’t be tolerated by a school. I’m not from an ethnic minority, so this was perhaps naive. It’s been a multicultural area for decades, but racist incidents have increased sharply in recent years. I hate this (and optimistically hope most others feel the same) and think schools should be taking a really tough stance on racism and not enable it in any way.

In a school with a highly punitive style and a focus on hypercompliance, there is obviously more scope for insidious forms of racism, such as punishing for “perceived” misdemeanours.

Id give that place a wide berth personally

Both incidents are racist and ignorant, and you're a defender of it.

Wow. This is dreadful. The same head? I'd not allow my children anywhere near it.

(But what do you do if thats the school youre child is offered a place at?)

What a shit show.

That doesn't sound good at all OP.

I’m not white. I wouldn’t jump to the assumption of racism there. People can make a genuine mistake calling people the wrong name when they teach lots of kids. I’ve done this (and I actually did it yesterday with 2 red-headed girls). Touching hair is totally inappropriate but it doesn’t mean you’re racist.

The examples given by the OP are appalling and paint a damning picture. I wouldn’t be sending my child there.

I think this is probably why teachers are leaving !the profession in droves and there’s now becoming a national shortage. Imagine being up before a panel as you accidentally called a pupil the wrong name once? I do it to my own children more than once a week. Yesterday I called our new cat my dogs name that died over 10 years ago. It’s called being human. And having a petition signed by hoards of angry students and being printed in the papers because you touched someone’s hair and told them it looked lovely? Taking into consideration that white students in our school are in the minority, the majority being black and Asian. But if a black teacher had done that to a white student..