is this discrimination lawful

[Ethel Street]

Hi ericsbrother,

 

I've got some experience of this - particularly hearing complaints! - as secondary school Chair of Governors. Can I clarify a couple of points first?

 

How old is your granddaughter - is this a Year 12 work experience (so she's about 17)?

 

How did your daughter find the work experience opportunity? Did she contact the GP surgery and arrange it herself? Or did the school find the placement? In most secondary schools there's a mixture of both. The school will have made arrangements with some employers for placements (and then have a system for assigning pupils to them - often first come first served) but if pupils don't fancy any of those they can make their own arrangements if they are able to find an employer themselves. If pupils find the work experience placement themselves it would have to be approved by the school for suitability and for safeguarding reasons.

 

Has an alternative work experience placement been arranged?

 

 

Is the explanation that "her placement there was refused by her school because she is white and they had decided that all such placements would only be available to black pupils" only coming through your granddaughter? Even at 17 pupils' accounts of what has been said are not always reliable, especially if it's something they are very unhappy about. I've been involved with many secondary schools over the years and that explanation sounds a very unlikely thing for a secondary school to say. Did the school repeat those actual words (or similar) to your daughter as well? How senior is the staff member who said these things? From the head? Or this coming from someone much lower down, not in the school leadership team - form tutor or work experience co-ordinator? Have the school put it in writing?

 

 

Assuming your granddaughter is under 18 it's your daughter who needs to progress a complaint.

 

 

First get hold of the schools complaints policy - by law it must be on the school website. Follow the stages in the procedure. It won't help, and will delay matters, to start all guns blazing with complaints to local media, MPs, Equal Rights Commission, Secretary of State etc etc. That can come later if needs be but don't start there until you have established some basic facts. What is the headteacher's version of events? What's their reason why your granddaughter can't do this work experience placement?

 

The first stage of the complaints procedure will almost certainly be that your daughter must discuss it with the headteacher. Make an appointment asap (it's probably half term this week) to see the head. Firm but polite, this is what granddaughter has been told, it's not acceptable. What's school got to say? Be clear how you want the complaint resolved (presumably by granddaughter going on the placement as originally planned if that's still possible).

 

If there's no satisfactory outcome to discussing with head the next step is formal complaint to the governors, the procedure will be in the complaints policy

[Ethel Street]

the equalities Act makes it clear that such discrimination is unlawful but they then say there is an exception where it is desired to encourage certain under represented groups to apply but does this mena it is lawful to go as far as a blanket ban on those who are not in a particular group? This is the essence of my question.

 

The essence of your question back in post #1 was "How would you progress a complaint is what advce I seek" and nothing in the additional information changes my advice earlier that to do anything about this the next step is to invoke the school's complaints policy and make an appointment to see the head next week.

 

Your question about race discrimination is hypothetical until you establish what the school actually said and what the head's explanation is of why your gd wasn't allowed that placement. Even if you end up in disagreement with the school about what actually happened you still need to hear the school's version of events first. TBH the language reported by your gd - "becuse she is white and they had decided that all such placements would only be available to black pupils" - sounds to me like a 15 year old's interpretation of what they were told, not a verbatim quotation. And many years of hearing pupils' versions of events at complaints and pupil discipline hearings has taught me that 15-year old's versions of events should not be relied on without corroborating evidence, certainly not without hearing the school's explanation, and especially not when the 15 year old is in trouble for her behaviour when told she couldn't go on that placement.

 

 

Most disputes in schools need to start with establishing as best you can what, on balance of probabilities, actually happened before reaching for legal principles.

[Ethel Street]

Can we assume that the parent here is also unable to understand facts, since the school went to the trouble of phoning them to tell them that their child is a racist for challenging the decision to only permit black students on this placement -

 

They way I read ericsbrother's post the school did not confirm to gd's mother that the placement was only open to black pupils and so did not confirm gd's version of events. Happy to be corrected if I read that wrongly. It would certainly make it harder for the school to deny what happened if they repeated the words to the mother. It's not just a question of 15 year old's being deliberately untruthful, they frequently have a way of interpreting what they hear which isn't what was said. Any teacher will have plenty of experience of that.

[Ethel Street]

Glad you got an outcome you were happy with without having to go through formal complaints procedures. Just my curiosity, as a school governor, how much is the financial settlement/inducement they gave to your gd? Paid in actual cash or something else?