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.

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. I don’t really see why he’d make the connection. When you have a bunch of little kids going a bit giddy and egging each other to shout naughty words to older kids, would they really stop and think ‘I mustn’t shout poo at the black kid as he is the colour of poo’? Even thinking that might be construed as racism in itself. No amount of learning a Rosa Parks or MLK is relevant to this situation.

My 6 year old most certainly doesn’t.

It's excessive and misplaced punishments like this that cause anger and intolerance

This is absolutely right.

The best way to deal with young children being silly is to talk to the class about not shouting "poo", "willy" and "bum" at one another.

Bringing racism into silly childish behaviour creates problems that aren't there.

Always? Because the school obviously didn’t give the accused (in this case a little kid) the benefit of doubt! Obviously they should have had words with him about the older boy being upset. However the punishment is draconian.

And yet you’ve been consistently using language more appropriate to a Court of law.

I think those of you linking 6 and 7 year olds shouting poo, bum, willy at the Year 6s to endemic racism are being ridiculous.

The 11yo interpreted it as a racist comment and that should be addessed quickly and sympathetically. If it was "you look like poo" or "you're the colour of poo," that would be clear racism and completely unacceptable.

But 6 or 7 year olds shouting "naughty" words at the big boys to be outrageous is pretty mild misbehaviour that should be dealt with by the playground supervisors, not by 2 days of exclusion for one child only.

Anything that makes us all step back and re assess the language we use towards others should be seen as a good thing. It's a learning lesson for your son OP. He now knows that sometimes we can upset people without realising the confirmations in our words. I don't think your child is racist, and in the future he will probably re consider how his words could be upsetting others and now knows a bit of the reasoning behind it.

My husband is white, I am of mixed heritage therefore my children do look 'different'. At 6, sadly my child did know a fair bit about racism. Or had at least experienced it in several ways or seen his family experience it. In turn my child's classmates soon got to learn more about racism as well. I think a lot of posters mentioning how their 6 year old don't know what racism is, are probably mostly white so they won't have ever experienced it.

Yes, of course they do.

@piintheski are you saying that a 7yo shouting "poo!" at someone is not normal behaviour? It's naughty but it's certainly not abnormal.

They weren't just shouting rude words, though. They were calling the older kid's rude things, which is slightly different. "You're a xxx" is a deliberate insult.
Op's kid knows this now 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm sorry that you had this experience.

However to say that 6 year olds using 'poo' as an insult is worrying is just utterly barmy.

"You stupid poo-head" is one of the most common insults that kids use.

Where on Earth do you teach, if this isn't common in your classroom?!

Ott. I’m mid 40s, did not know that could be a racism term. How is a child supposed to know this?

By 7 dc are certainly picking up racist messages from society, and I'd expect them to understand that there re some insults that are more hurtful than others. Definitely time to talk about racism if you haven't already.

My guess is that the school has picked up a racist undertone around, that this particular child is being subject to being called a "poo" more that children if other ethnicities.

Ultimately, he did it, and they followed the behaviour policy. I'm certain he will now understand that certain insults in certain contexts are more serious.

I’m going by what OP said earlier in the thread which was:

Literally shouting one word, not as part of a sentence. Other words used were willy and bum, apparently.

Well, this is what op said in her original post -
On the playground daring each other to call the big kids rude words
so I interpreted it differently. If op intended it differently maybe she should have phrased it differently?

I thought her OP was pretty clear. She certainly clarified very earlyin the thread.

Yes, it was very clear. I read it differently to you, though, apparently.

I hope so. Are you telling us that they don't?

Why doesn't he know about racism? I think my DD was 4 when she asked what a Black Live Matter sign meant

This is why I love Mumsnet. Someone’s always got to better the Fonz.

That’s nothing, when 2yo mine read Gone With The Wind, was absolutely appalled and promptly submitted a well composed essay to a National paper re the evils of racism. 4yo is really so very late to be having such in-depth discussions with parents and peers on racism!

What's any of this fit to do with poo? Am I completely missing something? Isn't poo something kids especially boys just call people randomly? How is it racist? Is it a known racist thing? What about 'poopy pants' or 'big stinky poo-bum'?

But you do realise that many 6 and 7 year old children from Asian or Black backgrounds don't have the luxury of not knowing a huge amount about racism?

Don't patronise me. My response was very clearly to someone who was surprised that a 7 year old wouldn’t know much about racsism. Nothing more, nothing less.

Personally I would (to use a Mumsnet term) "judge" the parent of a 7 year old who didn't know about racism.

Why?

Anything that makes us all step back and re assess the language we use towards others should be seen as a good thing. It's a learning lesson for your son OP. He now knows that sometimes we can upset people without realising the confirmations in our words. I don't think your child is racist, and in the future he will probably re consider how his words could be upsetting others and now knows a bit of the reasoning behind it.

Do you actually think a two day classroom exclusion is appropriate for an action which you you don’t actually think is intentionally racist?

Yes absolutely it should be an opportunity to learn but a 2 day exclusion seems way OTT for a young child using a very common mild taunt in a way that could be construed as racist.