The parents of a six-year-old girl are outraged after their daughter was branded a racist for telling a black girl she had chocolate on her face.Oh, where to start…
Sharona Gower had been eating chocolate mousse and was playing with a friend when she was chased by two 11-year-old girls.Two eleven year olds ganging up on a six year old – no cause for concern, then?
When one of the older girls, who was black, said Sharona had chocolate on her face, the youngster replied: 'Well, you've got chocolate on yours.'
The older girl wiped her face and said: 'I've got nothing on my face, actually.'
The girl then complained to a teacher, who gave Sharona a telling off.
Nice set of priorities:
But when Michelle Gower, 34, went to collect her daughter from school, she was told the incident was 'racist' and that a complaint had been logged.Regardless of how well I was investigated, it should never have arisen as a cause for concern in the first place.
Now Mrs Gower and her husband Nick, 45, believe the incident at St Paul's School, in Rusthall, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was not properly investigated and has left their daughter 'distressed and confused'.
Mr Gower, a dealer in antique collectibles, said: 'It was a bit of playground banter that has been taken as a sinister racial remark.A clearer case surely doesn’t exist?
'This is a six-year-old who hasn't got an idea what racism is and has been labelled as a racist.' He added: 'This is political correctness gone absolutely crazy.'
Mrs Gower, who lives in Rusthall, said the teacher did not explain what 'logging' the incident meant.Well, of course she did. She has her school’s record to think about, after all, and can’t afford any black marks…
She and her husband now fear the information may be kept on the school's database and haunt their daughter for the rest of her school career.
Mrs Gower, who also has a nine-year-old daughter, Jasmine, at the school, said she complained to the school's head, Carolyn Cohen, who took the side of the older girls.
A spokesman for St Paul's school said in a statement: 'This was a small incident, which has been blown out of all proportion. Children and parents were spoken to following an inappropriate comment.No. It wasn’t, actually. Far from it.
'The matter was dealt with appropriately and the issue is closed.'
But by repeating that ‘the matter was dealt with appropriately’ they obviously hope to deflect criticism, much the same way as repeating that an Underground line has a ‘good service’ (not a ‘normal service’, as they used to) seeks to normalise the shoddy service that we know it really is…
Update: Sue at Muffled Vociferation picks up on this one too.
10 comments:
That'll be the Diversity Missionaries in action again
"She has her school’s record to think about, after all, and can’t afford any black marks…"
Hee hee hee!
Well, of course she did. She has her school’s record to think about, after all, and can’t afford any black marks…
You racist! Associating ethnicity with negativity. Please correct:
"Well, of course she did. She has her school’s record to think about, after all, and can’t afford any green marks…"
Is it any wonder kids are growing up psychologically damaged?
Why on earth are we allowing this?
I'm stunned, really I am!
There seems to be an awful lot of this about lately. It can have a funny side though, as in this post that appeared on a newsgroup recently.
"I know someone who was summoned to the school after their kid called a black kid a "poo head". There then followed a rather surreal conversation where the parent pointed out that this was a generic term of abuse popular with silly five year olds, while the Headmistress claimed that it was really because black people are the same colour as poo."
"...while the Headmistress claimed that it was really because black people are the same colour as poo.""
Oh, damn! *wipes coffee from monitor*
:)
She and her husband now fear the information may be kept on the school's database and haunt their daughter for the rest of her school career.
They should complain under the data protection act.
This logging and recording is all very Stalinist.
Homeschooling is the the answer here -- at least removing the kid from that school would be a start.
They are starting to move in on the homeschoolers though. Seen a few disapproving columns in the 'Guardian' recently...
There is a very particular reason for this happeneing AP.
In England all schools are required to have a special log to recall just 'racist' incidents, not fattism, or gingerism or homoism, onanism, just racism.
Those schools that produce a low level of racist incidents can find themselves accused of being " in denial " and its' staff in need of re-education while those schools with a genuine problem will tend to play them down for fear of being labelled 'out of control'.
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