Gaza: East London School victimises 8-year-old boy for wearing his flag on his coat.

Ray Goodspeed, Leyton and Wanstead Labour Party member. [Main photo – Ray Goodspeed]

Many parents, carers and others in the wider community have been outraged by the behaviour of Barclay Primary School in Leyton, East London. Children and their parents claim to have been victimised and one boy (8) has not attended school since late November, after refusing to remove a Palestinian flag that was sewn on his outside coat.

Back on 15^th November, the school, run by the Lion Academy Trust, held a “Children in Need Day”. Naturally enough, some children turned up with Palestinian flags and stickers, to express their solidarity with those “children in need” in Gaza, particularly as Leyton has a high percentage of Muslim families.

Evidently, those ones were the wrong kind of needy children, as two-days later, a letter was sent to 8 families, warning them against making “overt demonstration of political beliefs”. The school declared itself to be an “apolitical” place. Even more outrageously, the letter contained a suggestion, possibly a veiled threat, that children could be referred to the “Prevent Team” or the Borough of Waltham Forest “Hate Crimes Team” if “extremist or divisive comments were made at school”. The school confirms that no such referrals have been made, so why even mention that possibility other than to intimidate?

“Children in Need”!

The eight-year-old boy at the centre of the storm apparently attended the “Children in Need Day” in Palestinian colours and with a sticker which he removed. The boy’s mother is from Gaza and he wanted to show solidarity and grieve for friends and relatives who had been killed in the Israeli attacks, and who he had chatted to over the internet. His father is adamant that it was no kind of “political” act.

The following Monday he arrived at school with a Palestinian flag patch sewn onto the arm of his anorak coat, an expression of his own ethnic background. It is alleged that he was then kept isolated from other pupils at lunchtimes and denied playtime until Thursday (23^rd November) after which the head told him not to return the next day. He refuses to take the patch off his coat.

The parents then formed a campaign to send a joint written response to the school complaining of this unfair treatment. Their letter makes the valid point that in the days following the invasion of Ukraine a letter to parents from the school said:

“I don’t know how you’re feeling at the moment but everything in life seems slightly trivial when you compare what’s happening in Ukraine and to its people. 

“There’s no escaping the fact that the events of the last few days have utterly transformed world politics.”

Double standards

The double standards are clear. It is even alleged that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the school flew the Ukraine flag and held fundraisers.

The campaign last term culminated in a well-attended and vibrant morning protest outside the school on 21^st December. But the school had actually chosen to close early for Christmas, making dark references to “threats and intimidation” and mentioning “false and malicious allegations”. The Metropolitan police confirm that the protest lasted about two hours; no arrests or incidents occurred and the protest was peacefully concluded.

But with the new term starting, the issue is not going to go away. Schools and colleges cannot be allowed to prevent expressions of support for the people of Gaza. A child of Palestinian background cannot be effectively suspended for wearing a flag patch from his family’s country on his coat. The double standards regarding other world conflicts cannot be tolerated.