School overreacted ?

[JimmyJam2019]

Child is barely 7, had full weight for school racism policy applied to them for calling an 11yo a poo. On the playground daring each other to call the big kids rude words. Older kid reported child for racist comment, can school not use some common sense, the kid is 7 and has no clue about racism.

I'm a teacher too. And I can safely say that you don't teach six year olds.

Should they be told off for running round laughing and shouting poo, willy and bum? Yes. Is it a criminal assault? No. Was this child being racist? I'll put my money on no. But since the older child felt targeted, OP's child should have had a calm conversation from their teacher about why it was perceived that way and why it matters.
Two days isolation was disproportionate and way less effective than a conversation would have been.

I agree. Of course the school should take it very seriously and depending on the circumstances it could amount to racism. But these are primary school kids... surely the school's first response should be dialogue and explanation, not harsh punishment.

Especially for such a young child. One missed playtime maybe. Isolation for full days is never normally done until secondary school.

The child was 7 fgs. Not secondary age.

A two day isolation is completely disproportionate. If your ds was punished, so should the rest of the children.

As for those saying 6yos don't find poo funny, they really do. Especially when together, every other joke is poo, fart, bum or willy.

😂

The two situations aren't the same though. Our society is characterised by systemic racism, power imbalances and racist messaging around skin colour, all of which mean that the impact of the insult is likely to differ depending on the identity of victim and aggressor.

That doesn't mean that the school's response was appropriate, but I don't think it's right to put this down as just kids being silly either.

Intent cant be assessed, can it, only perception, so the child needs to learn this.

That's just not true @piintheski .
The concept of intent is crucial in criminal law, for example, and it absolutely is assessed.

A factual statement? Young kids know that saying someome looks like the colour of shit isn't nice. When I was in year 1, another kid told me I looked like mud because they know mud isn't nice.

I always find these threads futile as they're usually full of people who have never experienced racism.

not in a school
not in a complaint
not in a police investigation

maybe in a court of law, but that is totally irrelevant here

Indeed.

Would saying that a white child's skin looked like the colour of vomit be ok?

Young kids know that saying someome looks like the colour of shit isn't nice.

We don't know that that was the child's intent though. As has been said many times, kids love yelling words like poo, willy etc for no other reason than that they're funny and rude to kids of that age.

OP has confirmed that her son and his friends were shouting poo to a whole bunch of kids, so it doesn't appear targeted at all. Which is why an explanatory conversation from a teacher should have been the end of it.

Actually there are many incidences of racism directed at white children. Particularly in schools which are predominantly non-white. My friend works in an inner city school and most of the racial issues occur with insults directed at black children by Asian children.

It's not irrelevant at all. The op has already stated they were calling loads of kids poo so the skin colour was not a factor.

We assess intent all the time in our day-to-day lives @piintheski. Or at least try to. It's interwoven with our perception of things.

It's also relevant in a whole host of other situations in a primary school, for example, kids are playing football and someone gets hit in the face accidently during a game Vs a child picking up a football and hitting someone in the face with it purposely. Intent is hugely important

I’m not sure where you got that from. My understanding was that the little kids were running up to the big kids saying words like poo, bum, willy randomly. Where did OP say that her child specifically targeted the black kid?

It’s a silly game, and one that younger kids should be taught not to play. But singling out one child for significant punishment, just because the child he ran up to happened to have dark skin, is ridiculous.

They should be taught that calling other kids names, in general, is wrong. Labelling a child racist, when he probably barely noticed the skin colour, is excessive.

Only way I could see this as racist if its an asian boy and you son called him"apu" like from the simpsons.

He’ll have covered it at school no doubt, as had my 6yo. It still took some explaining to help him join the dots between the stuff he had learned about Rosa Parks etc and an impulsive comment made in the playground.

This is silly.
Kids are kids, daring each other to say what younger children think are naughty/rude words to older kids /adults is part of growing up.
I remember my children saying and calling each other poo, said because they thought it was a naughty word.
I think the child who reported it saying it was racist is in the wrong, he needs to be taught not everything said to him is meant in that way.
School over reacted by far, they should just had an assembly next day saying its wrong to call others names.

A 7yo will have been taught about racism in school in within lessons, whether it be about Rosa Parkes, Windrush etc.
But, it sounds like the OPs son said "poo" as a rude word which was interchangeable with willy, bum etc.
The school are being ridiculous and I'd put in a complaint.

If you haven't taught your child good behaviour and they think that insulting anyone is acceptable, then it's great the school is stepping up and doing what you haven't. At the age of 7 a child may not have a full comprehension of bigotry, but they are definitely old enough to understand the basics and to undertsand that it is not something adults condone.

I find it difficult to believe that a primary school puts a child into two days isolation over one incident.

Did your child call another kid a poo, or did he tell a brown kid he looked like a poo?

I can see why the second example could be termed as racist.

But why does your seven year old know nothing about racism?

Thankfully, you haven’t taught in infants school! At least I hope not anyway! You wouldn’t seriously expect a bunch Y7s to dare each other to shout poo bum willy to a group of 6th formers. Though I’m sure you must have heard worse language in in secondary, rough or otherwise!

I don't think my 7 year old knows a huge amount about racism to be honest.