By deliberately and repeatedly using anti-Muslim material, did they fail their duties in the Equality Act 2010?

A Religious Education teacher at Batley Grammar School deliberately showed students an offensive Charlie Hebdo cartoon. He then asked who was to blame – the cartoonist for causing offence, or the person who killed the French teacher for showing it.

Not only did the teacher show a deeply Islamophobic cartoon unnecessarily, he asked a deeply Islamophobic question to go with it.

Parents have been protesting against the school calling for the teacher to be sacked.

The school head, Gary Kibble, has recently apologised, stating it was “completely inappropriate” and opened formal investigations.

Charlie Hebdo is an overtly racist and Islamophobic magazine. It repeatedly prints racist cartoons of black people, Arabs and anyone who is non-European. It attempts to justify its anti-Arab and anti-Muslim stereotypes though depictions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and calls it “free speech”.

These are the same stereotypes that have been used to justify the subjugation and oppression of Muslims over the past 20 years.

It’s clear Charlie Hebdo’s content is hate speech. If a teacher used racist or anti-Semitic tropes in the classroom, they would be sacked and struck off.

What is even worse, it was later found that the same cartoon has been used by other teachers in the same school and in previous years. If the content is “completely inappropriate” now, why was it used for many years?

As per the Equalities Act 2010, schools have a duty not to discriminate their pupils on various characteristics, including religion. Batley Grammar School has failed in this duty.

*ACT NOW*

Email or Twitter Batley Grammar School:
Email – info@batleygrammar.co.uk
OR
Tweet – https://twitter.com/BatleyGS

…and use the following points:
– Ask why the cartoon has been used for many years without being addressed
– State the school has failed to safeguard the children from discriminatory material as per Equality Act 2010
– Demand a full, unreserved and sincere apology from the teacher involved, and from the school to students and parents
– Demand a review of staff training and curriculum to ensure removal of all hateful material