Radicalised dance teacher

[hmmwwyd]

Have ncd and changed a few details to protect privacy

DD goes to a dance club. Very nice club, lots of friends and the instructor has become somewhat of a personal friend of the family

A little while ago I was added on Facebook by the dance teacher. All fine. She's a strong influence currently in DD's life and looked up to.

I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the posts however the dance teacher is posting on Facebook. I appreciate they are her personal views

Posts are along the lines of "go home" and anti Muslim propaganda, links to groups like Britain first etc

DD is of other ethnicity herself and we are not particularly religious but she obviously doesn't realise that I hold form of religious belief. I don't see any racism at dance

I'm struggling with just appreciating it's a good club, good activity and how much influence this woman may have over DD as she matures or how DD might feel if she knew of these views?

If it was the odd post - I'd let it go and I may well choose to ignore it. It's constant however and tagging some parents and teenagers in these posts on occasion too!

Do I just hide their posts and ignore?

Incognito

She's an amazing Muslim girl proud of her beliefs, who has overcome adversity and even forgiven the extremists who attacked her.

She even won a Nobel peace prize, because she is the embodiment of a what a Muslim should be.

And yet she's not good enough to teach your children if she decides to become a teacher.'

Now tell me who is fucked.

Religion can and should be questioned! Making sweeping statements and directing hate at a particular group is not questioning religion though.

Wow what an awful situation. No advice I'm afraid but sympathies

She is an obvious racist, however there is no law against this if she does not convey this at work. Personally I wouldn't have her teaching my child but she make not have broken any law, no matter how hideous it is. As a teacher I worked with racist and homophobic people but if that is not apparent in the job i.e. while in care of children there's nothing to do, legally.

What if she's adding the kids to her FB?

MY dog walker did the same, I found a new dog walker!

@Roomba

I agree 100% with everyone else.

My cousin is a teaching assistant and shares a FB account with her husband (why do people do that btw? V bizarre). She doesn't log into FB very often, so didn't realise her husband had posted links to loads of Britain First and Tommy Robinson type videos. A parent at the school saw this and made a huge complaint - rightly so. She very narrowly avoided losing her job over it all - it was only that it was a shared account, she'd been oblivious, didn't agree with the views herself and was absolutely mortified that saved her job.

Yeesh. Did it save her marriage too? How on earth did that work out between your cousin and her husband? I think I would’ve left him. That’s horrible.

Serious safeguarding concern. She is in a position of influence over young people. Report her ASAP and withdraw your daughter. Plenty of other dance instructors out there.

Any number of teachers or club-runners could have these views. What do you think will happen - that the dance teacher will start spouting xenophobia in the middle of the routine? That she will try to radicalise your daughter? I don't agree with her views but I don't think I'd withdraw my child.

She shouldn't be making it public though. I'm just wondering how many people who come into contact with our kids have these views but don't make them "known"

I'd unfriend /block Facebook but if she does not express any views in the dance class I would continue to attend if my DD was happy there.

Face book is a medium that is actually very distorting. I have good friends who share almost by default all sorts of things which I doubt they have really read. Someone else says "share" or "like" and they click because they know the person.

You say you know her as a personal friend so you could talk to her about it.

There is no way I would send my child to this woman. Even if we had developed a friendship, my daughter looked up to her etc. People come in and out of your children's life. She will get over it. But you really can't send her back. She definitely needs reporting. When asked I would be totally honest about my reasons for taking out my DD. And to other Mums who take their kids there too. In the long term you will be doing her a favour as she is currently clearly not understanding how this could impact on her business. I've unfollowed people I work with for less and if they ever ask I will tell them why.

What do you think will happen - that the dance teacher will start spouting xenophobia in the middle of the routine? That she will try to radicalise your daughter?

This woman is publicly posting racist material- that's a pretty big decision.

I would be worried if someone like that were in a position of authority over my DDs, but I'd be far more concerned if my kids weren't white.

You say you know her as a personal friend so you could talk to her about it.

That is the first thing I'd do, unfortunately it rarely works. Still it is not OP's job to fix this woman- only do it if you feel able to.

What about free speech?

Whether or not she is (in your eyes) a ‘racist’, why can’t she express her views/opinions on her Facebook page? Why get so upset about it, do you really need to read all she puts there?

She is entitled to her own views and opinions (however disagreeable they may be) as long as she isn't sharing them in class or treating students of different backgrounds of any kind in a discriminating way because of her views as this would be very unprofessional.
However, if she is adding her customers (dance parents) onto her personal FB and sharing opinions that may be offensive to others then she has to be prepared to lose some of those customers who do not want to continue supporting her and her business because of her opinions / beliefs.
As a parent and customer you are well within your rights to withdraw your child from her classes and find a dance school more suited to you - I wouldn't want an opinionated racist teaching my children either.

"Whether or not she is (in your eyes) a ‘racist’, why can’t she express her views/opinions on her Facebook page?"

No-one is saying that she doesn't have a right to do this.

However, free speech is not the same thing as speech without consequences. I would not be happy for a child of mine who wasn't white to be in the care of someone who was a known racist. Their withdrawal from the class would be a direct consequence of that person expressing racist views. No infringement of that person's right to speak whatever bigotry they want - just consequences for doing so.