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‘Refusal will result in a Racial Discrimination note being attached to your child’s education record, which will remain on this file throughout their school career’ I have only one thing to add to this Telegraph blog post by Daniel Hannan.
It is this: I am glad that Mr Hannan and other newspapers have not followed the usual timid practice when reporting stories of this type and obscured the name of the culprit. A storm of public anger is about the only weapon we have against the likes of Mrs L Small, head teacher of Littleton Green Community School, Colliers Way, Huntingdon, South Staffordshire WS12 4UD.
And if “our R.E. coordinator Mrs Edmonds”, she being the one with whom parents are invited to “discuss this further”, does not wish to join her boss in the stocks, she should direct her further discussion towards disassociating herself from the literally fascist tactics Mrs Small uses.
The L stands for “Lynn”, by the way. Lynn Small, head teacher of Littleton Green Community School, the one who coerces parents by threatening to harm their eight year old children.
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I do wonder if this is for real. For starters, the issue here would be discrimination on grounds of religion, not race, a different protected characteristic under the equality act 2010. But who is the victim of this alleged discrimination? If there were to be discrimination here, it is difficult to see who has suffered less favourable treatment or unfavourable treatment on the grounds of a protected characteristic.
Then there is the issue under the data protection act of the processing of sensitive personal data relating to someone’s opinions which must be proportionate, kept for a proper purpose and only kept for as long as necessary. If this story is true, then the school Is opening itself to legal challenges on various bases.
Ed, why would you think it is not true? One of the links in Natalie’s post has a copy of the letter sent to the parents.
Yet another excellent point in favour of home schooling.
Does this mean atheists are racists?
Is it Racial Discrimination to teach evolution?
She said: âWe are a mainly Christian school, but we have to cover at least one other religion as part of the national curriculum.
âThis visit is part of that.
That smells rancidly like the “I’m only obeying orders” excuse.
“At least one other” implies more than one. So if the kids had been given a trip to a Christian church, a Sikh, Hindu or Buddhist temple at the same time, well that would be a sort of rounded view of contemporary Religion wouldn’t it? But what is the one chosen on pain of being marked as a racist at the age of 8, and probably the rest of your educational development? A muslim Mosque.
I wonder how many of the Muslim pupils at this “school” would have turned up with sick notes if ordered to visit a Synagogue? Probably all of them.
I doubt that Mrs Small is a fascist.
It is more likely she is just an idiot, one of those people who takes work too seriously and who lacks a sense of proportion.
You get them in all walks of life so some of them are bound to be teachers.
RAB, what was proposed was not a visit to a mosque, it was some sort of “workshop” to learn about Islam. I’ve no objection against that, so long as parents who do object are free to have their children excused. I would have no objection to them actually visiting a mosque with the same proviso, and the further one that it not be demanded of the non-Muslim children that they do anything against their or their parents consciences. In fact the latter assurance was in the letter. (I am not sure whether mosques allow non-Muslims to visit, but that is not germane to this story. To be frank, I don’t think whether Muslims would be willing to have their children visit a synagogue or church is germane either – I know from personal contacts who are teachers that some Muslim children do go on RE trips to other religions’ houses of worship, but whether they do or not is up to them.)
What angered me was the attempt to use force to make the parents send their children on this trip. The rules for such trips in state schools insist on an opt-out. She attempted to subvert those rules. If they were applied honestly that alone should get her disciplined.
But that is not the half of it. What drove my anger to stratospheric levels was the attempt threaten harm – non-physical but very real harm – to the children in order to force the parents.
She shouldn’t be allowed to be in charge of a school ever again. I hope there is some way to sue her.
@ Mr Ed asks
“But who is the victim … ?”
Spoken like a true libertarian. For a crime to be committed, there must be material harm done to some person or persons, or to their property, through malice or through negligence. Anything else is either a vice or a mere arbitrary prohibition.
I tried to read it, but the legalese defeated me. Is the Equality act one of those really insidious ones whereby someone, not necessarily the person it was directed towards, merely takes offence at someone’s words or behaviour? If so, Mrs Small may well have the law on her side.
If true, all that this proves is that the law is not merely an ass, it’s demented.
RogerC and Dom, re the letter (Dom) it is so far-fetched and distant from what the law actually describes as discrimination that I thought that it might be a hoax. No half-decent lawyer would let that letter go out, however I could imagine a BureaucratZombie might send it out, not obeying orders as such but anticipating what might be deened the Spirit of the Age. The law as a weapon, a sword, not a shield.
The Equality Act does permit person A to take offence at a slight to Person B if it is on grounds of a protected characteristic, e.g. If I were offended working in a club by a Bernard Manning type act making racial jokes, my race is irrelevant as to whether or not I have suffered a detriment on the grounds of race. But here, there is no detriment should a child not wish to attend, and arguably, to record a ‘racial discrimination’ note would be unlawful processing of sensitive personal data, leaving the school open to legal action.
But here, I note the hectoring tone and prejudgment of ‘dissent’ in the letter. Was this letter written by an aged East German illegal agent, long since forgotten by her paymasters in Moscow, er East Berlin, who is acting put her spiteful socialist fantasies in the next best way, working in an organ of the UK government, whilst longing for the Red Army to rape its way to and over the Channel to punish the bourgeois, unrecnstructed proletariat, or am I imagining too much?
This vile treacherous woman should be barred from teaching for life
That email address doesn’t work any more – I was genuinely interested in finding out what Mrs Small’s side of the story was, however it looks as if she is less enthusiastic in giving it.
And why not? It mostly works, unless you’ve lost a war.
It just gets worse and worse.
as Mark Steyn points out we are all but guaranteed to live in an Islamified Europe by the end of the decade. Any public reaction to stories such as these are merely the death throws of a dying civilisation, fatally weakened through decades of indoctrination and moral degeneracy unleashed by cultural Marxism.
The question is still where do we turn now? the US is almost certainly as doomed as the UK due to leftist control of the culture, third world immigration, the expansion of the welfare state, and just this week we see it cosying up to its enemies (Iran) and betraying its only true ally (Israel).
maybe Australia?
I find it odd that a “Headteacher” does not understand the difference between race and a religion. If as well they are to see how Islam works then that is religion, must be so. And yet she said there would be no religious context. Headmistresses aren’t what they were!!!!
I should have read the letter more carefully Natalie. Not a Mosque but a Stafford University workshop eh? The substantive point of my comment still stands though… with so many religions to choose from, why Islam? Hinduism is pretty popular, and with lots of Gods and Goddesses to chose from… Elephant ones, multi limbed ones, you name it, perfect for little Dr Who fans I would have thought.
Then there’s Buddhism. It was emphasised to me when I was in Sri Lanka, that Buddhism is a philosophy not a religion. Well if you say so, but it looks like a religion, it smells like a religion, and when I visited the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy it was one of the most sublime and inspirational moments of my life. As we old hippies used to say… the vibes were electric!
I have visited many mosques ragingnick, Northern Cyprus and Turkey mostly. They are very interesting architecturally. Most of them used to be Christian Churches. đ
So the choice of this school has made is nothing really to do with religion as a whole but will be propagana for Islam. It will be the religion of Peace, not lost limbs… Please miss can I cut Billy’s hand off, he stole my Twix at lunchtime yesterday? or… Please miss can you arrange a marriage between me, Julia, Karen and Charleen? They’re well fit! No it will be whitewashed as usual.
Natalie: thank you for the note at the related post on “tolerance”. I tracked down the post that made me aware that schoolchildren can be arrested for speech crimes in the UK:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/9595417/is_britain_the_worlds_first_politically_correct_totalitarian_state/
It is from 4 years ago. I provide the link in the hope that, in 4 years, people will remember this post, or any article about the current issue.
I suspect this woman knows full well the differences between a religion and a race.
The word ‘racist’ is now used for intimidation, insult, and to halt any ‘further argument’ especially when the one using it is losing !!!
You can see it happening. As soon as ‘you’re a racist’ comes out, the ‘other side’ usually shuts-up, cowers, whimpers something unintelligible and craws away.
Some of us have stopped reacting that way to ‘the insult’
Tolerance, especially for idiocy shown by this ‘head teacher’, should be suspended. People such as her should be ………………… !!!
Fortunately, for the rest of her career, she will have a “nasty authoritarian bully” note attached to her record.
Usually, “think of the children” is the sly plea of these people. This case has a twist: “think of the children…or else”.
I’ve never been sure whether teaching turns some people into fascists, or whether fascists are attracted to teaching by the unchallengeable authority they think they should assert in the classroom. People with Lynn Small’s views and approach seem to me to be much more frequently found in schools than in other places of work.
Rob, the ‘child’ bomb is an oft-used weapon, the first resort of a scoundrel.
We must protect the children, most of whom will become adults*, by striving to ensure that they live in a free World now and in the future, if they survive to adulthood.
* the laws of natural selection are always in force, and cannot be disregarded.
I regard Steyn as verging on crackers every time he shrieks that actually.
Perry,
Mark Steyn simply highlights the current demographic trends and then projects forwards a generation or two.
Why is that “crackers?”
Johnnydub: I think it’s that projection part that is problematic, in that it is too simplistic and unimaginative. None of us can see the future and my speculation may be as good or bad as yours, but we can at least make the intellectual effort to account for as many possibilities as we can. I think Steyn and others like him may have been a bit too intellectually lazy in that accounting business. I wouldn’t go as far as Perry in calling him ‘crackers’ or whatever – Steyn is too valuable a voice of overall good in the global media, but a grain of salt is in order, IMO.
If anything I think Steyn is a little over – cautious. His thesis is based on a given generation having a Muslim majority. The evidence based on global trends is that any country’s democracy is in real trouble once the Muslims reach 20%….
Perhaps a âMade a crude attempt to blackmail studentâs parents” note will be attached to Lynn Smallâs employment record, which will remain on file throughout her career.
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.â As per the Bible :- Luke 6:31
Oh the irony.
Two reasons:
1. It assumes that as muslim communities become more affluent, their birth rate will stay high. Very unlikely
2. It makes the cardinal error of taking as a given that the descendent of the current crop of muslim immigrants will share their parent’s values rather than those of the host community, as if islamic intolerance was somehow genetically hardwired.
Contrary to what is often claimed, demography is *not* history… culture is.
What mostly seems to happen is that children of Muslim immigrants don’t share their parents’ values–and that’s exactly the problem. The parents leave because they want more opportunity, and tend to be moderate (or even atheist). Their children eventually see the emptiness and vanity of post-modern Western culture and go looking for their “heritage,” as instructed by their multiculturalist teachers. Once they find it, they see how much more meaningful it is than the bland and uninspired mess we have going on and they become radicals.
Cultures are changeable, Perry.
Not easily or quickly, Alisa.
Of course not. But Steyn is not talking about next week either, or is he? In any case, with regard to Islam, I think that the doomsayers such as Steyn are a bit guilty of oversimplification (which does not mean that Islam is not a threat and that we should be complacent). Personally, I prefer the Emmanuel Todd approach, as described in Brian’s latest post here.
Perry – you are mistaken.
It is not “the values of their parents” (who are often quite moderate) it is Islam – as a belief system (not “values” – which is too vague to be useful in this context).
And what has the dying West got to present as a alternative belief system (set of basic principles)?
Bugger all – as random sex and drugs are not a belief system, they are goods (booze, drugs and so on) and services (sex and so on).
That all may be nice – but it is not a belief system, not a set of principles.
So young men (and young women) will continue to be attracted to Islam.
Not just the children of nominal Muslims (although look at the children in the schools to know the future of a county – the United States will end up a Latin American county, and much of Europe will end up Islamic) – but also CONVERTS to Islam.
Someone can be a blue haired, blue eyed suicide bomber – and such people will become more common over time.
If the Dying West were stronger (in its beliefs) then new people would be converted to its principles – those Hispanics in America would just become brown eyed, tanned skinned Americans with Spanish family names (and so what?) and the people from North Africa and the Middle East would become Christian Europeans (do not tell the people of Malta – but they are Arabs and their language is really Arabic).
However, as the Dying West is well…. the Dying West, the children of the newcomers (without the clan culture of their parents home villages and towns) will seek pure Islam, and locals will convert. Just as young Hispanics in America are far more hostile to the United States than their immigrant parents were (apart from those who convert to the American side, to American PRINCIPLES – much rarer now than it used to be, but it still happens in America and in a way it does not tend to happen in Europe).
Sorry but sex, drugs and rock-and-roll (nice though they be) will not do as a belief system – and the modern (dying) West does really have anything else. And the young Muslims will go through their sex, drugs and rock and roll stage – and then look for some “meaning in their lives” some answers to the fundamental questions – and there Islam will be (waiting for them).
“A belief system does not have to be religious Paul”.
Quite so – but I do not see Randian Objectivism (or whatever) being powerful in Europe.
As for Mr Todd.
Does it really make sense to talk of family structure in Europe and North America now?
Among the Mormons of Utah (and some other groups) it may still make sense to talk of family structure.
But do most “modern” Europeans and North Americans even have traditional families any more?
Is not the state the father now?
At least for about half the population.
It is indeed the Dying West.