AIBU to be fuming that my Year 5 daughter's class has been branded ?

[Ebony69]

So my 9 year old DD came home today and told me that after her TA (who is white) struggled to get the attention of the class, she suggested to them that they must all be racist. The TA explained that the only reason why they weren't listening to her was because she is white. Out of 30 children, only one child is white. The class teacher is black but was not in the classroom. AIBU to be fuming at this?

You've had some pretty piss poor responses on here. I think you should see the head. The TA needs some retraining, possibly for another job.

It's absolutely true. It had never even occurred to my DD that she or any of her peers were racist. My DD is mixed race, btw with a white dad.

Speak to the TA. More questioning is needed and frankly she needs to be talked to about what's appropriate and why she thought that was.

but my daughter is unlikely to be making up.

Yeah, because that never happens.

I'm not even responding to the goady remarks. If I was trolling I would have name changed.

Hmm. Call me unimaginative but as a white teacher with 20 non-white pupils, I simply don't believe this occurred. I just don't. Sorry.

Who knows. However black on white racism happens. A friend removed her child from a local school which was predominently West African because she felt ostracised at the school gates, and feared the same would happen to her DC when their peers became old enough to pick up on parents attitudes. Before her DC started she had not given race a thought, even though it was likely her children would be the only white kids in the class, and assumed others would feel the same way and treat people as they found them, regardless of skin colour. Raciusm is horrible which ever way round. Perhaps OP could consider what she would feel if the TA had been black and the class white. The TA may have jumped to a conclusion that it was because she was black. Would that be more acceptable.

*but my daughter is unlikely to be making up.'

They do misunderstand things though. I've put children in totally random groups before and they've decided that it was based on being the "thick table". I had parents coming in and complaining that I was labelling their children as thick even though I really hadn't done anything of the sort.

Talk to school, but the situation isn't necessarily as your daughter has described it.

I'm disappointed, I was hoping that the school was an academy that had sold the class names as advertising space and you were going to be complaining the your DD got the Asda class instead of the waitrose one.

In most circumstances, I tend to assume that my children's versions of events are imaginatively reinterpreted. I suggest you do the same OP - and tell your DD that she should bloody well be listening to all the school staff and not pissing around in class, even if everyone else is.

Evening all
If we could tone down the troll hunting
Op's not a newbie.
Thanks

Only newbies can troll, Olivia?

Of course I certainly will be speaking to the school to find out exactly what was said as she would have paraphrased the teacher's comment. But she insisted that the teacher used the term 'racist' to describe the class.

Salem, if you think I'm trolling, please don't waste your time on this thread.

I guess it could be a joke, or a misinterpretation by the OP's DD. Or it could be true. Personally I'd want to get to the bottom of it and would raise my concerns with the class teacher.

But she insisted that the teacher used the term 'racist' to describe the class.
I thought the teacher was out of the room?

I'm a bit bemused by all the weird comments on here, what's wrong with you lot?

Absolutely talk to the head. TA is not in control and shouldn't be accusing class of anything in lieu of that control - any issues she has should be reported to teacher/head of year/head and dealt with that way. Sounds like she has issues with the class and can't cope, probably needs support and extra training.

And of course racism can be levelled at white people from BME people. It's more unusual because of our country's demographic and history but people who dismiss it outright, without knowing the facts, are ignorant.

^ what Salem said.

Do all your children go to this school? Have any of the others experienced such behaviour from the staff?

So why has my post been deleted and no one else's calling out this OP?

There's a reason for no troll hunting isn't there? That's what the report button is for. Otherwise the whole thing will just go up its own arse.

I meant the TA, not the teacher. The teacher is black. She's a lot stricter and is far more confident in commanding the class' attention, understandably.

Silver, this is my third child to have attended the school. I used to be a governor in the school which would have made me privy to sensitive information. I have never come across this before.

Why wasn't your child behaving for the TA?

I'm a secondary teacher and can absolutely believe this happened. I work in a school where the intake is less than 5% white British. I've heard this sort of comment from colleagues very occasionally. It makes me cringe when I hear it and if they said it in front of the kids I'd expect the parents to kick up a massive fuss. Rightly so too. Not sure why you've been given such a hard time. I'd definitely follow up on this, I'd speak to the class teacher first rather than going directly to the head.