Racism at school

[analieninblackburn]

Hi Everyone , my two boys attend a Grammar school in the North West of England. To my shock they have recently told me that pupils use the word "paki" to describe people of Asian origin all the time. Both my children here the term 3-4 times per week , although they say it's not directed towards them (we are a British Muslim family of Indian Origin ) . The school is predominantly white 80-20 split .
This type of thing happened in the 80's and 90's. I'm very surprised it still happens now . In an "outstanding " school according to Ofsted . If my children have heard this term being used, then surely the staff must also be aware that there is a problem . I'm not sure if it stems from pure racism or islamophobia. My children don't want me to get involved however I feel this issue is bigger than just my two children. What steps should I ask the school to take ? What actions specifically? My fear is they will deny that there is a problem . Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

I would find out about the school's anti bullying policy and their inclusion policy too. I would be asking your dc for specific situations (even if they want to keep it anon at this stage for the perpetrators).
Then I would ask to speak to the head armed with some intel.
Ask them about how they teach tackling racism.

From what I understand someone needs to ‘be offended’ for it to be considered a problem. The term doesn’t need to be directed at the person offended, could be anyone who heard it.

The issue is that some people get so used to abuse it becomes normal and ignored.

Or dealing with it or speaking up becomes difficult and teens don’t have track records for reporting discrimantion. Although girls have got considerable Better over the decades!!

If you feel it’s offensive and want to raise the issue, I see no harm in asking the school on their views/policies and what they are doing to tackle racist behaviour. It needs to be stopped so it’s no longer normalized.

Good luck

Paki is a difficult word, my closest friend is of Pakistani background and regularly used that word to describe herself and her community. That's fine but it's not in anyway fine for anyone of any other origin to use it. I don't think it's got anything to do with Islamophobia - it's a catch all phrase for anyone with a brown skin. When we moved out of London many years ago, I was really shocked to find the local newsagents (run by Hindu Sri Lankans) referred to as the Pali shop by adults who seemed to have no clue that this was completely unacceptable. My eldest DD has a mixed heritage, her DG comes from an Indian family in Trinidad. In London she had been one of many many children of different cultural backgrounds and as she has white skin, had never experienced any kind of racism. At her new school, after she told another pupil off for impersonating an Indian supply teacher with a fake Bindi and 'it ain't half hot Mum' type of accent, other pupils started calling her 'black bitch'. But back to you, it's not an acceptable word used by white children and does need to be wiped out. Do you want this still to be around when your grandchildren reach school? I would go to the top, book an appointment with the Headteacher and have a gentle but firm word with them about how offensive you find the word and it's bigger impact on the mindset of both their white and none white pupils going into the outside world, it's just not a word that should be perpetuated in 2019.I personally found going to the top very helpful in our instance and both my DD & I had a number of apologies from students & their parents.

Excuse the spelling - auto correct went into overdrive!

There is no way that the term 'Paki' used by white kids is anything other than racist. and I completely disagree that within a school setting someone has to be offended by it for it to matter.

And I agree that it is bigger than your two children, and their personal response.

I would start by trawling through the school's policies to find out what they say about racism / racist language.

Do you know any f the teachers? Form tutor? Head of Year? If there was one that I trusted I would ask to have a conversation with them and be emphatic about your children not wanting named involvement.

The school needs to tackle it as a school-wide thing. The pupils who recognise this as racist language need the validation of the school making a public policy that racist language is unacceptable before any of them will feel able to say anything. The staff need to know that it has been publicly voiced and discussed in order to feel accountable for stopping it, and to be secure that they can receive support from senior managers in enforcing.

Racism isn't dead at all. In my experience it lurks in all schools and Brexit has made it even more mainstream.

Teachers are usually good at dealing with racism when they hear it (ds2 told me about a teacher immediately jumping to his defence when he was called a racist term) but they realistically can't do better than that as there's a big culture of no snitching in many secondary schools.

How did you deal with racist incidents? My kids jump to the defence of people who have been targets and have appreciated those who do the same for them.

Thanks everyone , I have a meeting with the head and deputy tomorrow . I have a copy of the bullying policy . They've advised that they will share the racist bullying statistics with me tomorrow at the meeting . Will be very interesting to see there approach , I'm hopeful they will tackle it - in a way I'm glad people are using the term , as if it's out in the open - the problem can be addressed . But also concerned that it's happening in front of other Asian / black children , I think it has long term effects on individuals. Brexit hasn't helped at all , I don't think everyone that voted for Brexit is a racist , but all racists would have voted for Brexit .

What I would want is:

• Individual incidents dealt with (if you have details/specifics of recent incidents) - here racism would be an internal or external exclusion
• Global educational input (lots of charities/organisations can come in and do assemblies/workshops for example)

If it continues and you do not feel it is being dealt with effectively, you can contact SARI. They will attend a school meeting with you and they're brilliant.

We'd also recommend reporting any incidents on social media to the police. If a parent wanted to report an incident in school, we'd support that also. I think schools have to stand really firm to prevent a culture where racism becomes acceptable - as someone mentions the "don't snitch" culture makes it a slippery slope. Lots of schools are genuinely good at this though.

It’s racist. Report the fact that your children are hearing this regularly. Ask the school what action they are going to take to stop children using this term. It’s completely unacceptable no child should be using this word or hearing it.

@ASauvignonADay what is SARI ?

@analieninblackburn it's an organisation that supports people against racism/inequality although I've just realised when copying their website address that it's just in our area not national! But there may be something similar local to you - maybe google racism support and your area name?

Thanks , will do .

You also need to notify the school. They must do a 'return' for every racist incident which goes back to the LA.

It is nonsense to say someone has to be offended in the school for it to be a problem. Hypothetically speaking that would mean that if there was an entire school of children believing in Nazi ideology, it wouldn't be a problem, because they'd all agree! Schools are part of communities and the wider world. Pupils are learning not just subject matter, but also behaviour and rules about what is okay and what isn't and they need to be taught that racist terms are not okay.