Birmingham schools facing fresh wave of death threats and intimidation after Trojan Horse, heads claim

From TES, the teachers magazine and the BBC

Birmingham schools are facing a fresh campaign of intimidation in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal, including death threats against headteachers and dead animals being left in playgrounds, it has been claimed.

Speaking at the National Association of Head Teachers’ annual conference in Liverpool today, Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, head of Anderton Park primary school in Birmingham, said the problems raised by the Trojan Horse scandal were “the tip of the iceberg”.

“We still have dead animals hung on the gates of schools, dismembered cats on playgrounds,” she said. “We have petitions outside schools, objecting to teachers teaching against homophobia.”

Ms Hewitt-Clarkson said she had been sent a death threat on social media, in which someone had written that “any headteacher who teaches my children it’s alright to be gay will be at the end of my shotgun”.

Speaking after a debate on the issue, Ms Hewitt-Clarkson said she was not referring to her own school, but that she knew of one school that had found a dead dog hanging from the railings and another with a dismembered cat in the playground.

The union backed a resolution raising concerns that the recommendations of the government-commissioned Clarke report into the Trojan Horse scandal have not been fully implemented. NAHT member Alison Marshall told the conference “. . . Despite all the evidence we have, we’re faced with a situation where not one single governor implicated in the Trojan Horse scandal, has been investigated or even banned. Where is the justice in that?”

Tim Gallagher told delegates the lack of regulation meant it was “blindingly obvious” that there would be problems with governing bodies. “Many, many of our members have suffered greatly from rogue governors,” he said. The conference carried a motion calling for a national register of governors who have been removed or barred so that schools and local authorities can check the suitability of governors.

A Union taking notice at last – wonders will never cease.