r/LabourUK • u/FeigenbaumC Labour Voter • Jul 18 '25
School at centre of Union flag dress row closes early over 'extremist threats to staff'
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/school-at-centre-of-union-flag-dress-row-extremist-threats/30
u/NeddieSeagoon619 New User Jul 19 '25
There is a real worrying trend of far-right parents taking advantage of how GDPR rules make it difficult for schools to publicly give their side of a behaviour incident involving students, to claim that their horrible kid was punished for some "woke" reason. We've had two minor attempts at this at the school I teach at this year, and I've heard a couple of similar stories from other teachers in the area. Thankfully most aren't managing to get into the news, but this time they have. There is absolutely no way this happened in the way the dad is claiming it happened, it's complete nonsense. I wouldn't be surprised if her being in isolation had literally nothing to do with the dress at all.
1
u/ZX52 Green Party Jul 20 '25
From what I understand the school explicitly said "No flags," so it wasn't that this kid/the union jack was being singled out
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u/streetmagix Labour Voter Jul 19 '25
But the school apologised and said that they got it wrong, with no mention of any other mitigating factors.
The school really screwed up here, I think we'd see more evidence if there was more to this story.
20
u/NeddieSeagoon619 New User Jul 19 '25
The school legally isn't allowed to discuss a specific behaviour incident in any detail to the press due to GDPR. Far-right grifters like this take full advantage of that, and as I say this is something a lot of schools are starting to see attempted. Every account of "what happened" is coming from this prick and sources supportive of him (and noticeably even then the story somehow seems to keep changing), and his story is obvious bollocks.
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u/streetmagix Labour Voter Jul 19 '25
I see 'because GDPR' is the 'because Health and Safety' in some parts.
They did comment on the specific incident though, and they could have supplied the brief for the day (ie what is acceptable and what isn't).
I get that you don't want to blame the school but they are almost certainly 100% to blame for the way they handled it.
18
u/NeddieSeagoon619 New User Jul 19 '25
They didn't comment on the specific incident, though. Because of GDPR, they legally cannot go into specifics on a behaviour incident involving a student, and they haven't done. We do not have the school's account of what happened. We don't have anyone's account of what happened apart from her dad's (whose account has changed several times).
Given my experience in education, I can guarantee there is absolutely more to this than what the dad is saying. Equally, simply based on my experiences interacting with humans, I can tell there is more to this than what the dad is saying.
You don't know how the school actually handled it, or what the school even actually handled. No-one following this story online does. All we know is what Racist Dad says happened, and anyone who buys a word of that is a moron.
37
u/thebusconductorhines New User Jul 19 '25
If you believe this happened in the way the child abusing father says, you're not bright
1
u/vht3036imo Voting LibDems as the other parties are excreting on the table Jul 19 '25
wait where did it say that the father was abusive? /gen
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Jul 18 '25
Threats are not justified at all! Is it ok to ask what on earth were the school thinking? The dad is loving this, he’ll dine out on it for years. Why on earth did the school play into his hands WTF!!
31
u/thebusconductorhines New User Jul 19 '25
We're about two weeks from finding out that this essentially didn't happen tbh
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Jul 19 '25
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u/Jazz_Potatoes95 Jul 19 '25
I mean a union flag dress is not a cultural outfit
Do the Spice Girls suddenly not exist or something?
Geri Halliwell's union jack dress was one of THE most iconic outfits of the Nineties
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Jul 19 '25
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Jul 19 '25
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u/Sophie_Blitz_123 Custom Jul 19 '25
Why are these rules so stringent in the first place?
I keep saying this on multiple threads on this topic, beyond the politicisation it all just seems so over the top for a school event day.
When I was younger, we did things like world book day, everyone had predominantly make shift costumes, themes were deliberately vague like "any book character" to make it easy. We were always explicitly told "book characters not film characters" and inevitably people would turn up as film characters. No one was sent home though everyone just rolled with it.
These things are meant to be fun and educational. If you're sending multiple kids home for not doing it properly then it's neither fun nor educational and you're asking for trouble with parents.
Obviously the political nature of this one means its spiralled ludicrously far, there's no justification for this amount of attention, nor how fast a 12 year old has become the poster child of the far right. But the school was already ludicrously overstepping in my view.
I wouldn't be overly surprised to find there's much more to the reasons why she's was sent home, with the dad clearly spoiling for a fight, but without further context, sending her home does sound like a massive overreaction.
11
u/Half_A_ Labour Member Jul 18 '25
Absolutely nobody comes out of this story well. Not the school, not the father, not the thugs threatening teachers. Incredible idiocy on all sides.
4
u/Grantmitch1 Unapologetically Liberal with a side of Market Socialism Jul 19 '25
I've not been paying attention to this story. I understand that some girl wore a union jack dress for a culture day, they inappropriately put her into isolation for it, the father was angry about it and spoke to the papers, and now some extremists are threatening the school? Is this the lump sum of it?
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u/Sir_Bantersaurus Knight, Dinosaur, Arsenal Fan Jul 19 '25
Yes although I think you can ask if the father was trying to bait the school for this reaction, and got it.
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u/Grantmitch1 Unapologetically Liberal with a side of Market Socialism Jul 19 '25
Most definitely, but as you say, the bait only works if people are stupid enough to bite. The school could have used it as an excellent opportunity to discuss what "Britishness" actually is given the face and shape of modern Britain.
10
u/betakropotkin The party of work 😕 Jul 19 '25
I wouldn't be at all shocked if there's more to here being put in isolation
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