I really didn’t think I’d talk about an issue like this in my second article.
My answer to this question was quick- yes. My interest in this matter rose after a protest at Nonsuch High School for Girls in Sutton. I’ve seen a lot of news reports about the event, but I question if any of them understood the event. Most commonly cited as the reason for these protests are a collection of snapchat posts, but that seemed almost dismissive, ignorant of larger problems causing the tensions.
I felt that the protest was an act of bravery. It was well thought out, planned by Year 11’s at the school, in response to continuous failings in areas relating to race at the school. But the issue is not solely limited to Nonsuch. The experiences I’ve heard, read, are almost laughable. I wanted to explore these issues at schools throughout schools in Sutton.
First, I want to run through some alleged reports about racism in other schools in the Sutton area. They range from the disappointing and arguable (Continuously romanticising and supporting colonialism in assemblies at Wallington County Grammar, reading the n-word in Mice and men- all schools largely, ‘banter’ about jihadis and blacks in prison being permitted by teachers ), to the mildly disturbing(telling Asian students to p** *up, at Wallington County Grammar, attempting to force Hindus to cut off religious bracelets at, up until their parents could verify , banning the congregation of black girls for a period of time due to apparent worries about gang affiliations at St Philomena’s, and a German teacher at Sutton Grammar saying they would be worried to walk their dog in an area with a high east Asian population).
Nonsuch The protest which lead to the resurrection of my interest in this topic occurred on the 15th October. The straw that broke the camel’s back was not the snapchat posts, but rather the reaction of staff at the school. The posts themselves were filled with racist vitriol, but what followed might just be even more disappointing. Unsurprisingly, students respected some sort of response from the school. There was. Students were told through assemblies and emails that shunning the girls would not be tolerated. The excuse given for the posts were ‘the pressures of lockdown’. The school’s sentiment was compounded by events such as an art teacher (later suspended) saying that George Floyd was a petty thief, who deserved to die. Whatever position one holds about George Floyd, I’d like to believe you wouldn’t wish death on him. As for the protest, to see and watch what they had done was inspiring. The speeches were brilliant, it was well co-ordinated, and most importantly, it made the point it set out to. Alas, later reactions were still concerning- the school blocked emails from students trying to talk about the problem- and this is for me was the hardest part to swallow-thus essentially killing any chance for the problem to be combatted, as it removes the chain of command for students to get support and raise issues. To be truthful, I could never quite do the problems and experiences the students at Nonsuch had go through justice, but I plan to link places where you can view those with much greater understanding of the issues share their views.
Wilson’s My feelings associated with my school and issues of racism are jumbled. There are staff I know are willing to do anything to help, but I can never quite shake off the things I hear happened, but more so what I know happened. For a school, in which teachers are apparently not supposed to swear, multiple staff members are quite liberal with their use of the n-word, and I’m not including reading books here. I can talk about the almost exceptional insistence by which a senior member of staff would call me Jamal, despite corrections from my friends every time he’d do so, but that pales in significance to things others experience- for me it’s just a matter of still wondering if he just always forgot. I can talk about hearing that detentions were given for linking the fact of African countries speaking French to slavery. It’s not a subjective opinion to be punished, but sometimes an uncomfortable truth. Throughout stories you hear, there is a senior teacher who seems to be appear in a lot of these stories, but I doubt I can mention him.
The Diversity Issue As I was writing this article, something was stuck in my head. Why? Why are there so many issues in these Sutton schools? Looking at the makeup of these grammar schools, they were probably more ethnically diverse than most. Then I looked at the staff. I can count the amount of BAME teachers at my school one hand. The situation is similar in a lot of these schools. This is not necessarily a problem. Teachers should be hires based on their merits, rather than the colour of their skin. Still, I can’t help but think that issues raised might be taken a little more seriously if there were more teachers of colour. I feel like they’d relate more, care more. That’s not to say that other teachers don’t help- In Year 9 I raised a concern, and a senior member of staff, who I personally admire, promised to inform other teachers of the impact that words can have, and showed me that sometimes people make genuine mistakes. The difference in the diversity of the students and the teachers will forever be striking.
For all I know, soon enough an event could occur that makes my writing look out of touch and naïve. I just felt that this was a topic too important, too close to my heart, not to address.
Djimon Gyan, Wilson’s School
(You can see 15 minutes of speeches at the Nonsuch protest at @Nonsuchmemes on Instagram
