Racism in school

We have lived in Spain for almost 5years during which time my 2 children have been attending local Spanish schools.  There has been the few issues from other children, normal stuff.  However, when a mature teacher tells my 11 year old son and another British boy that they are..¨stealing from Spain.  Go back to your own country.¨ as they did not have the correct books with them,  I feel that I must make a stand and take some kind of action.

I have written to the Director of the school expressing my anger and disgust at such a racist outburt but as yet have had no reply.  I have had some suggestions that I should Denounce the teacher but what is the correct method of complaint?  Surely, there must be some kind of procedure for  such incidents.  I cannot believe we are the only forgieners to have experienced such behaviour.

I would appreciate any help on this matter and also to hear of ther peoples experiences.

Thanks

Hi,

I agree with Mike.

Perhaps you could make an appointment with the head of the school and the teacher in question.   You are entitled, as a parent, to see the head on matters concerning your child.  Is there a parent/teacher association at the school?  That might be a good place to start.

Good luck

Patricia

Get an appointment with the headmaster and demand and apology from the teacher.

This behaviour is completely out of order.

Unfortunately the other thing to worry about is what happens after, its not the first time ive heard of this kind of thing and afterwards the teacher becomes very unhelpful with those particular children.

Joan

Is your lad fourth of primaria or first of ESO?  If it's primaria will he be at the same school next year?  If not, I'd just forget it.  There's only a few weeks till he leaves anyway.  Otherwise, I think that you have to go see the Head if only to get it on record.  I shouldn't worry about the teacher taking it out on your lad.  Sounds like that's going to happen anyway.  And your doing nothing could well encourage him to think he can get away with it.

I believe the reason we are subject to bad behaviour, especially by uncivil servants, is because we don’t complain and they exploit that failing. It is only natural to be discouraged by the thought that it might backfire. Let me put you straight on that point.

Quite a number of Spanish people do not like foreigners and that includes British, Moroccans, South Americans .... whatever ..... and more so in the pueblos.

The Spanish are not as politically correct as in UK but that's not a bad thing becuase at least they say what they think - which is exactly what they do!

I remember when my daughter was in primary school and a teacher asked her to look after some new English children at breaktime  and she noticed that if she was with the English children the Spanish children would not her join in so I told her to ignore what the teacher said and leave the English children by themselves and go back and play with the Spanish children. She told me the English children in the school did not really mix in and tended to stick together in their own little groups.

I think your son will just have to get used to the odd comment.

Thank you Mike.  Yours is the kind of encouragement I was hoping for.  I have heard of too many situations where people have decided to just ignore how badly they have been treated as they don´t want to be seen as making a fuss or be classed as a ´Brit abroad´. All children are entiltled to an education free of this kind of nastiness.

I am well aware we are not in the UK but we are still in the EU and I am sure that a lot of money and propaganda goes into portraying Spain as a tolerant, welcoming country.  It is right that people should complain otherwise nothing will change.

I will be contacting the board of Governers if I do not hear from the Director.

Faro, comments from other kids, whatever the nationality, whatever the country is quite the norm but NOT from teachers.  Why should he accept this kind of abuse?  I wouldn´t accept it if someone spoke to me like that.  All this woman has done is lose any respect she had from the British kids.  Not a great environment for learning is it?

These teachers are ignorant funcionarios with jobs for life and they will say what they want and if you do complain they will probably say your child did not understand what was being said because Spanish is not his first language (no matter how well he speaks the language).

Another story from my daughter

A secondary school teacher was telling the children of her trip to London and said her first surprise was in the airport in London when lookie lookie men were checking her passport and she couldn't believe all the black people in positions of authority!

What can you say to people with that mentality? I found it quite amusing!

But I do think the UK has gone a step too far in that we can't send Christmas cards but only Seasonal Wishes, no Christmas carols and so on ..

It used to make me laugh when we would spend forever selecting a corporate Christmas card that could not offend anyone only to find these very same people that we did not want to offend sending us back Christmas cards becuase they knew it was our custom.

Question is who is more annoyed by this comment you or your son?

Actually, he was quite bothered about it.  He may not grasp the full implications of racism but he knows nastiness when he hears it. 

I think any parent would be disturbed to hear that a teacher has spoken to a pupil like that. 

My daughter is in the instituto and has been called by one of her teacher her ´favourite foreigner´.  Could be translated as being offensive but she did not take it that way as it was not intended that way.  My sons situation was different.  Why should she get away with it?

I have been told that I am wasting my time pursuing this but I suspect this is mostly from those who have never stood up to be counted.

Of course you should take up the issue with the Head, seek an interview with him/her and demand an apology.  Please let us know the outcome.

Patricia

I don't think you said when this happened, but I think you should see the head teacher sooner rather than later. Don't wait for a response, This IS spain!!  Go in there and damand to speak with the head teacher. I would.

There's no way you'd put up with a thing like this in UK, so don't put up with it here.

Find the courage, stand up for your son. I know it can be hard, but you can do it.

As Campana said, please do let us know how you get on.

Best regards, Febe

I'd let it ride. When people (the teacher & family)  have money problems their behaviour changes as they become frustrated. What the teacher allegedy said - interpreted by child assumedly - is unacceptable, of course. But in what way has the child been substantially disadvantaged by the remark? Best would be to go toe to toe with the teacher in the classroom, a la How Green was my Valley. Perhaps give the teacher a hiding, although these days that would probably be frowned upon. I'd relax. Stretch out. Have a glass of vino. Or two. It'll all be the same in a hundred years.

It's interesting to note that we all assume that this teacher did actually say to two English boys who had not taken the correct books to school that they are ..¨stealing from Spain.  Go back to your own country.¨   I know the mum is going to take her boy's word for it but the fact is that the mum doesn't know what happened.  She wasn't there.  The teacher was presumably speaking Spanish and in Andalucia that's the equivalent of a foreign kid at school in the UK understanding deepest Geordie.  A mistake is possible.  It is also possible that the boys are making it up to drop the teacher in it to get their own back for the telling off they got for not having the right books.  Or just because they're mischievous.  Kids aren't all angels - whatever their mums might think.

If you are planning to go to the school to complain, do think about what evidence you are going to produce to support your allegations.  Because if it did happen as the boys said, the teacher will almost certainly deny having said anything of the sort; none of the Spanish kids in the class are going to stick their heads above the parapet to defend two English kids against their Spanish teacher; and the Head will have no choice but to support the teacher in the absence of any evidence to the contrary.  Which is fair enough if you still believe in innocent until proven guilty.  So now the teacher is demanding an apology from the boys and the mum for slander and defamation.  And the boys will suffer subsequently.  Or do you think that this little episode will make them more popular?

Give the boys a break.  They should be worrying about getting an education and don't need this distraction.  So get this in perspective; stop turning it into a drama and teach them that life isn't always fair. 

Well, Jek does make some good points.  It would be a good idea to have the facts all lined up prior to a conversation with the Head and/or the teacher in question.  Still and all, if Bon feels disturbed by all this it probably will be best to clear the air, one way or another.  Hopefully all sides can shake hands and move on. 

Patricia

First, Bon2222, I am very sorry to hear about this experience, I think it is outrageous.

But in response to Jek's comment, whilst I don't know your son's level of Spanish,  I think it probably worthwhile just to ask your son to tell you (or write down) in Spanish exactly what the teacher said.The phrase you used in English looks pretty unambiguous to me and would be pretty easy to translate. That way you can be sure there is no misunderstanding. Also, if, as Jek speculates, your son isn't telling the truth (unlikely I imagine), the act of writing it down will, I suspect, force him to rethink.

Peter

Also were the two English boys the only 2 in the class with the incorrect books?

If so why?

Bottom line is they brought the wrong books and the teacher was probably annoyed and now you want to blame the teacher for chastising the boys?

My partner and daughter are both fluent in Andalulcian and asked him to repeat exactly what she said. They confirmed that the interpretation was correct.  I asked other childern in his class, who he is not particularly friends with if anything happened in class that day and without prompting they said the same thing.  I know how children can be in terms of embellishing situations so I did check it out first and I certainly would not suggest that my son is an angel.  I am quite sure that she was frustrated with them not having the correct books and was absolutely right to tell them off but the comments she made go beyond a mere telling off.

I wonder if those who say just to ´suck it up´ would have the same attitude if someone in a position of trust treated their son, daughter or even Mother in this way.  If we do nothing, nothing changes.