Public meeting at Glasgow school confronts racist abuse

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Staff and students at St Albert’s Primary school faced racist comments after an image of Nicola Sturgeon visiting the school was shared online

By Maryam Hally

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Friday, October 14, 2022

Issue 2827

The meeting at St Albert’s Primary School in Glasgow brought together parents, workers and campaigners

Around 100 anti-racists rallied at a Glasgow primary school on Wednesday where staff and students had faced a torrent of racist abuse. The meeting, organized by Glasgow Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), brought together school workers, parents and campaigners at St Alberts Primary.

Racists directed vile comments at staff and students after an image of first minister Nicola Sturgeon visiting the school was shared online. Some remarks included calls for ethnic cleansing of pupils, while others targeted another image of a staff presentation on diversity.

The Glasgow SUTR meeting included speakers from the EIS school workers union, head teacher Clare Harker and a parents representative. Fauzia Ahmed, chair of the parent council said, At the beginning of the week we were actually really upset and devastated by the news.

But as the week has gone on and the support by the school, by the community, by other pupils in the school has just been amazing. Theyve got their power back up which is a big relief and we know that we are doing the right thing by educating them the proper way to stand up to racism.

Anti-racist campaigner and former teacher Zamard Zahid spoke about how mandatory anti-racism training for teachers had been reduced to a bolt on training module.

Aamer Anwarthe solicitor for the Sheku Bayoh family drew on his own experiences of dealing with institutional racism in the police. He emphasized the power of people to make meaningful changes.

Solidarity poured in after the racist abuse. Pupil Muhammad Mahboobsial told STV News, One of my friends joined in P3 and he spoke Arabic, but we made friends with him and let him play games with us. No matter what religion you are, we will be caring to you. This school has a lot of religions. Its diverse and its really important.

Haadiya Isaque, a pupils council representative, added, Its a very inclusive school. Every single person, no matter what language they speak or where they come from, will be accepted here. Over the weekend some people got some chalk and drew love hearts in front of our school. Our class was also making posters learning about racism.

The Tories and right wing media attacks on refugees, migrants and Muslims have boosted racists confidence. At the meeting, SUTR national organizer Julie Sherry slammed Tory home secretary Suella Bravermans dream of deporting refugees to Rwanda. She said Bravermans drive for deportations was about intensifying the hostile environment to divide us and deflect blame during the cost of living crisis.

Sherry called on people to join SUTRs international conference, online and in London, on Saturday.

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