An Edinburgh school has been accused of blocking black students on social media after they asked for a response to a letter accusing the school of ‘racism’.
The letter, sent by a group of current and former pupils of Holy Rood RC High School said teachers didn’t listen to the concerns of black students and claimed a teacher let pupils use the 'N-word' in class.
The group were inspired to write the letter after seeing an impassioned video by former Holy Rood pupil Hadja Fofana who accused the school of failing to address racism and creating an atmosphere where black students felt like they could not come forward to report abuse.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live Hadja said: “A few current and former students saw the video and got in touch to tell me they were going to write a letter calling on the school to show support.
“They emailed it to the school on Friday (June 5) but when they got no response they sent it to them on twitter – it went a little bit viral, with loads of people sharing it.”
She said the group of current and former pupils, who are all black, did not receive a response from the school, who instead blocked them on twitter.
“These students just wanted to make their voices heard because it had never been brought up before,” Hadja explained.
“But the school blocked them on Twitter when they @’d them.”
This response drew outrage on twitter and did nothing to help the school’s reputation for not listening to black students, Hadja said.
“They handled it really badly, blocking them just made the school look even worse,” she added.
The letter also claims that one teacher told pupils to “go back to your own country” during a lesson.
Three days later on Monday (June 8) the school issued the following statement on their twitter account: “The school treats allegations of racism very seriously and in line with the authority’s Equality Policy. The letter on our twitter page contained serious allegations which are being investigated.
“We continue to recognise, respect and celebrate the religious, cultural and social diversity within the Holy Rood community.
“We are committed to promoting equality and strive to achieve this through our school values.”
