I have sent my complaints to the DfE on the basis that the Governors have failed to adequately investigate my April 2021 complaint. 

I had asked my solicitors to write a second letter in April 2021. This set out the facts relating to Zoom bombing and essentially, what is looking like a coverup of a Zoom bombing situation. The school used the fact that I was already in the complaints process to ignore large parts of my solicitor’s April letter, which set out the facts, learned only when the children went back to school. My main points from the April letter were not addressed.

As a parent I was within my rights to utilise the School’s Complaints Procedure to raise concerns about the incidents: my child, was directly exposed to racist music and pornography; as he is a black boy, these incidents impacted him perhaps more than it did other students, and this has not been acknowledged by the school. He is one of only 3 black children in the class. The lyrics he heard were: “Nigger, nigger”. He was in tears when he told his mother and his family about the incident.

The school has, to date, failed to investigate this matter as a racial bullying, racial harassment or hate incident. We have made clear that we regarded the incident as a racist incident which was upsetting, disrespectful and abusive.

The Safeguarding Governor explicitly expressed at a meeting with parent representatives that they would no longer engage in conversation regarding the online safety breach(es) with parents if they were to raise them after the meeting: the rationale being that the meeting was called in order to discuss these matters specifically. We were surprised that the school took this approach to safeguarding matters.

The school is obliged to follow its own Complaints Procedure and cannot shut down further discussion and this compelled me to inform other authorities, including the local authority, the Diocese Ofsted and DfE.

The school is minimising the impact and harm these incidents have had on the Year 6 students. Both incidents resulted in psychological harm and distress to the children, it occurred remotely and at a time when children’s mental health and wellbeing was under considerable strain. 

The school’s online safeguarding approach during remote learning has fallen short: To suggest that there are ‘no methods’ that ensure complete safety in online education is surprising. Other Schools routinely carried out online safety procedures to a satisfactory standard to protect children and ensure that children’s education continued.

The Headteacher’s response letter stated that the perpetrator of the incident admitted what he did. We are concerned that there seems to be a number of factual disputes regarding the incidents we have
complained of and the parents of those children accused state that their children have been unfairly blamed. We are concerned that the school is trying to cover-up a more significant issue, which is that the School’s Zoom line were not secure, and the online lessons were susceptible to “Zoom Bombing”.

We are of the view that the school has consistently failed to follow its safeguarding policy and procedures during the online and remote learning in 2021 and haven’t yet been held accountable for failures which impacted on our children. Primarily the Governing Body’s role is to ensure that the School Leadership Team are able to follow their own including in relation to online safety, but the Governors have failed in their duty. It is now up to the DfE to investigate. 

A Call for Justice & Action

On 02 July 2021 we had a response from the school to my stage 2 complaint, it was over 1 month late, but despite taking this amount of time the governor’s letter did not fully address the facts and questions that we had presented in our complaint letter dated 16 April 2021.

I have exhausted the school’s complaints procedure and ask the DfE to get involved. I have written to my M.P. I am open to mediation but the school is not willing to pay for it.

I am still instructing solicitors to liaise with the school, Ofsted and DFE regarding the lack of transparency and the school’s handling of the complaint. Doyle Clayton remains instructed because I feel that I was silenced by the school when I first raised this matter and my questions have not yet been answered.

No parents should be shutdown, lied to, berated for challenging school’s inadequate response to serious violation of safeguarding incidents. For exercising their freedom of speech, especially when their goal is to protect children. 

I speak out against all of the manipulation and lies that are being used to shut down parents, it has impacted on myself and my son, our physical, mental, psychological and spiritual well-being.

 I contend that the school has acted unlawfully as follows:

The School failed to send a list of acceptable behaviour guidelines to all parents prior to the first online sessions. This document was only sent after the first breach of online safety. The date of this document is important because by this time the children had already been exposed to explicit lyrics. 

1.The school has, to date failed to investigate this matter as a racial bullying, racial harassment or hate incident.

2.My son was exposed to the N word, in class, in front of his peers, and the teacher did nothing to address this language within the lesson. As one of only 3 black children in the class he felt ostracised.

3. My son was not contacted by his class teacher to discuss the incident on 22 January as is claimed by the school.  There was no face to face support offered to the children ( including my son) following the racist abuse incident, on return to the classroom.

4. A meaningful apology from the School including from the Head. An apology to my SON would reduce the distress, hurt and indignity associated with being discriminated against. It might also assist recovery, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

5. In relation to the exposure to  pornographic images via zoom: As there was no waiting room in the zoom call, the perpetrator  gained immediate admission. There was no system in place for the teacher of the class to check the class attendants and participants. As a result of this error on the school’s part, the perpetrator then exposed the young primary school students of the class - including my son - to pornographic images and videos. My son and multiple other students said that the perpetrator was faceless, and simply displayed the content without saying a word. My son who left the school before the end of the summer term has been greatly affected by these incidents of online zoom bombing, and yet the school has been unwilling to provide my son or any of his fellow students the protection and support they deserve in light of the 2 incidents.

The recommendations of the children’s commissioner,
Miss Longfield were never adhered to by the school: Lock your classroom  and use virtual waiting rooms.

6. The School has admitted that they were already aware that children in Year 6 were exchanging pornographic material since December 2020 as they had been alerted by a parent. The School has also acknowledged that the teachers and Teaching Assistants have been aware of the WhatsApp conversations between children before remote learning started in January 2021. Therefore, these matters should have been contained within the school’s Risk Assessment to identify children who were already accessing and sharing pornographic material. This material has now been exposed to the entire class, rather than the smaller group of children within the cohort. 

7. All remote live lesson learning was halted until face-to-face teaching commenced on 08 March 2021.

 The School’s safeguarding , had they been adhered to, would have prevented the children from being exposed to both explicit lyrics with a racist content and pornography. Other schools have been able to follow their policy and have had no such serious incidents, due to their ability to follow through with their Protocols and Procedures.

I would also hope that the School would consider further staff training, an improvement in school equality policies and better adherence to existing policies so that no other child is subjected to racially abusive language in the classroom, in remote lessons or otherwise. Such commitment to future action would alleviate some of the distress caused.

Primarily the Governing Body’s role is to ensure that the School Leadership Team are able to follow their own including in relation to online safety. These failures are the responsibility of the School Leadership Team, including the Headteacher as she has not ensured a consistent and safe approach by staff members. This may be due to a lack of training or a lack of adherence to the policies which are, in fact, in place. 

The children have been subjected to distress, sexual harassment and racist language through alleged Zoom Bombing and the impact of this should not be downplayed. The subsequent withdrawal of online interactive lessons can only have harmed their already-disrupted education in academic year 2020/2021.

We must fight for ACCOUNTABILITY, JUSTICE, TRUTH .

May I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude in advance for all of the help and support that you may give.

Thank you,

Suzi xx

https://www.times-series.co.uk/news/19376829.mum-criticises-st-catherines-catholic-primary-school/

On 25 May 2021 we were informed by Vice Chair of Governors that an independent panel was being convened in order to investigate my stage 2 complaint. We have not heard further from Vice Chair of Governors.

We have received very little information regarding next steps from the School.

We have not received a response to our email dated 03 June 2021 and we have not heard further from the school regarding their investigation of my complaint in accordance with the school’s complaints procedure. 

 On the 17^th of June 2021 we sent an email to the school Lawyer of our preference that this matter is investigated by an independent panel, given the serious nature of the concerns raised.

We understand that the police were contacted following the incident involving pornography. We would be grateful if the school could confirm the crime reference number. 

                                Calling all parents!

Have you found it difficult to bring a complaints to your Childs’ school?

 Do you feel that you were heard? 

 Do you think that it was investigated properly?

 Have you encountered the same problems I’ve encountered? 

                          If you have please share this page.

We still have not had a response from either the Lawyer or the school. They are supposed to be following the complaints policy but l have been waiting.
It’s now the 10th of June and it leads me to question whether or not school complaint processes are adequate to deal with these types of complaints and whether or not the governors are going to step up and hold this headteacher to account.

The school has now instructed a lawyer. I have been asked to take down the copy of my complaint letter posted on this site because it is in bad faith. I posted the letter in order to be transparent and open about the complaint I have brought and what I am seeking.

Let us be clear about this: 

 At stage 1 the school dismissed my concerns regarding online safety and omitted key information regarding the Zoom bombing and therefore my stage 2 letter added to the complaint, expressing concerns regarding transparency.

I am crowdfunding because this case is of importance to all parents, and I want to be able to see it through to conclusion.  If the complaint had been adequately addressed earlier in the procedure, then I would not need to crowdfund for legal advice and assistance.

The reason why its of wider importance is:

1. School leadership teams should be held to account by the governors- Governors should be empowered to do this:
2. Parental complaints should be properly investigated and replied to in a truthful and transparent manner
3. Safeguarding and sexual harassment should not be minimised or swept under the carpet – pornography was circulating via WhatsApp before the incident on Zoom but not all parents of year 6 were informed and therefore they did not speak to their children
4. The headteacher wilfully mislead the parents of year 6 regarding the circumstances around the pornography incident – by failing to disclose that the school’s Zoom account had been hacked by an outsider. The school has not yet confirmed this version of events, but has apologised privately to the parent of the boy who was blamed for the incident.

The school has acted in bad faith by hiding facts from the parents and by minimising a serious safeguarding incident. I would like you to share my page and contribute if you can …

1. school used an online platform that was not safe for live lessons exposing the children to sexual harassment
2. school did not adequately risk assess
3. school withdrew live lessons from the whole of year 6, causing their remote learning to suffer, when the perpetrator was known not to be a year 6 child
4. school has not acknowledged zoom bombing incident
5. school blamed a year 6 boy for an incident involving explicit lyrics and did not apologise or acknowledge that the perpetrator was in fact a zoom bomber
6. My son suffered harm after being exposed to pornography and racist language (N  word was used)
7. I  feel that my complaint has been minimised.

The Headmistress and the Safeguarding Governor explicitly expressed at the afore mentioned meeting that they would no longer engage in conversation regarding the online safety breach(es) with parents if they were to raise them after the meeting: the rationale being that the meeting was called in order to discuss these matters specifically. I am surprised to learn that the school took this approach.

The Headmistress’s letter to suggest that the parents are no longer concerned is simply untrue.  A redacted transcript of conversations between the parents on this issue as evidence in this matter has been sent to the school.

These children have not yet had Sex Education classes, which are normally conducted in Year 7, according to the RHSE Curriculum. My son was recklessly exposed to sexual images at an inappropriate age due to the School’s failure to follow through with their own online safety policies and procedures.

The school exposed my son to racist music during their online Zoom lessons conducted by the school, as he is a black boy, these incidents impacted him perhaps more than it did other students.

The School has acknowledged that staff felt vulnerable about the exposure.

My son is a shy and quiet child from a conservative Catholic family. He has now become unhappy and anxious about School; the damage caused to my son at a young and impressionable age is arguably greater than the feeling of vulnerability the School’s teaching staff have experienced.

The response letter from the Headteacher states that other schools “are facing similar problems”; however, the handling of the same risk has differed, and these other schools have successfully prevented exposure to explicit lyrics, explicit images and sexual harassment.

The School’s safeguarding , had they been adhered to, would have prevented the children from being exposed to both explicit lyrics with a racist content and pornography.  Other schools have been able to follow their policy and have had no such serious incidents, due to their ability to follow through with their Protocols and Procedures.