AIBU to think that this is political and should not be supported by a state school

[FlamingoCroquet]

(I have name-changed as this is very identifiying to any other parents or teachers from the same school. But I've been on here for 8 years)

DC's primary school informed us in the newsletter that the school is supporting a scheme to provide aid - specifically a backpack of items - to unaccompanied boys age 11-17 at the Jungle camp at Calais, in partnership with an organisation called Calais Action. They are asking parents/children to donate. This is to coincide with Refugee Week.

I'm very uneasy about this. I don't want to get into an argument about the whole migrant/refugee debate, but I feel that this is a political action and should not be supported by a state school. I am not against helping refugees in general, and would not complain if they were raising money for the Red Cross or Medicins Sans Frontieres. But I have major misgivings about supporting a group called Calais Action.

I'm thinking about emailing the school governors to raise my complaint, but I'm reluctant to be seen as that person who is anti-charity, when my DD has several years left at this school. What do you think?

Then they're not refugees!

It doesn't matter!!! They're children!!!

Also just a side point...what is wrong with stirring up political points in primary school. Use it as a political discussion point in your own house instead of complaining.

I doubt you could argue that an 11 yo was an economic migrant, OP

Surely refugees would hope to ultimately gain employment and be in a position to help any family who remain trapped in their country of origin...?

YABU. If it were your child, alone and abandoned, I imagine you'd feel very differently.

Naive? ignorant? chip on the shoulder? yes!!!! so immigration is the word your looking for yes?????? big deal!!!!! if it werent for immagration youd have trouble finding a doctor or a dentist or a cleaner open your eyes!!!!

Bit of a racist post this really.

Tbh you sound like a kipper voting, little englander who thinks charity should start at home yet probably does nothing bar 5 quid to children in need (and probably complains that some of that money goes abroad).

If you're worried about how complaining is going to make you look, it's probably for a reason.

They may or may not actually be children - if you're a young man with no papers then there is an enormous incentive to claim you are under 18 even if you're 25. But yes very few are girls, and well meaning people have already donated so much stuff for women and children that the camps have enough female-specific resources to last for several years. Hence boys only.

Are state schools banned from supporting political causes? My son's school supports food banks, groups that oppose academies, campaigns against library closures and has an asylum seekers organisation. All of which can be political. I wasn't aware they were breaking any rules.

These are unaccompanied children living in unimaginably dire conditions on our doorstep. YABU

Yanbu. Our school did something similar and I told them I was happy to donate to charity but would be donating to a charity of my choice (Barnardos) which cares for vulnerable young people in the UK.

it's a voluntary donation though? So if they chose any charity you were uncomfortable with, you just don't donate? I mean, I see why it's political but to some extent that can be said about a lot of charities.

YABU the issue that there are unaccompanied children in harsh and dangerous circumstances is not just a political one but a humanitarian one. It doesnt matter what you believe about refugees or weather they should be allowed here or not, what matters is that these children are there and they are sufferring. Helping these children is not promoting a specific political agenda its just the decent thing to do.

Why couldn't an 11 year old be an economic migrant? His or her family think their son or daughter has poor opportunities in their home country, best to get them to travel to Europe ...

agree with Aging they may not be children, a comment made by a friend who did a supply drop there.

they are kids

Bit of a racist post this really.
wft?
Please explain what I have said that is in any way racist. That is just plain ridiculous. Do you even know what racist means? No I am not racist. ffs

Some of them say they are ... its been shown time and time again ... they say they are 14 but they are really 19 and so on ....

Immigration is a political issue, asylum is a political issue, the fact that the Calais camp even exists is a political issue.
Helping the desperate children who live there, of whichever gender, is not a political issue. It is an humanitarian imperative, whatever most of our mainstream media want you to think.
Refusing to help those children because you disagree with the political decisions of our so-called leaders is morally unsound.
I wouldn't raise the issue with the school governors; you won't be remembered as anti charity but rather anti this particular charity. The whiff of heartless xenophobia may cling.

Then they're not refugees

of course they are!

In any culture's imagination, boys can be hard labourers on building sites etc. Send a girl ahead and there's a (genuine, sadly) worry she'll be picked up as a possible prostitute and lost contact with forever.

But, if one family member can be hoped to earn some subsistence, even at illegal for that country rates, there's a chance of being eligible to support the rest of ther immediate family.

You don't have to donate

YANBU

I agree with you FlamingoCroquet

This is a political cause and a school should not be supporting it.

These unaccompanied children (not orphans, note) aren't refugees. They're economic migrants who've been smuggled across Europe by gangs of people-traffickers, dumped in Calais and pointed in the direction of the white cliffs. Most of them claiming to be "children" are actually older.

Tbh you sound like a kipper voting, little englander who thinks charity should start at home yet probably does nothing bar 5 quid to children in need (and probably complains that some of that money goes abroad).

What a load of complete shit. That's all in your head. You have no idea how I vote - as you have just demonstrated. Can you not even read? I said in the OP that I would support Medicins Sans Frontieres. The clue's in the name.

Ignore the person who accused you of being racist Flamingo. Its a very, very tiresome response in these political threads on MN, and simply a way of avoiding true political debate by stooping to personal insults.