Plashet School staff left in fear over Equalities Club complaints

An exclusive from the Newham Recorder. For non UK readers Newham is a borough of East London (the old east Ham, West Ham and Stratford) which hosted the Olympics in 2012 on what had once been the largest Railway marshalling yard in Europe, providing a living to thousands of Cockney families. It is now the London borough with the lowest proportion of white English residents at 15% (and another 15% other white, Polish, Spanish Lithuanian etc)

Teachers at a Newham school were left frightened for their safety after being accused of “grooming” children.

Police were called after Plashet School, in East Ham, was bombarded with complaints accusing staff of trying to “sexualise” children by “covertly promoting LGBTQ views”.

One email said: “The school needs to know that actions have consequences… Be warned, we will not tolerate this for our children’s future.”

The accused staff ran Plashet’s optional lunchtime Equalities Club. . .  it launched after police officers murdered African-American George Floyd in 2020 and spent much of its time considering racial inequalities. Planned events included a guest talk by a Windrush survivor (the Windrush never sunk.  All that happened was that 30 years later immigrants from the Windrush who hadn’t bothered to regularise their paperwork were required to do so or face the possibility of deportation) and a trip to a wheelchair sports event.

On October 16, a Plashet staff member sent an email warning of “an emerging situation”.

They said pressure group SREIslamic had held a “virtual meeting” about concerns over the club, “attended by around 60 people”.

“My feeling is that this has come from within the school,” they wrote. “The detail, particularly about staff involvement, is so specific.” The staff member believed a staff member had leaked information to SREIslamic’s leader, Yusuf Patel.

Mr Patel, a former member of radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, founded SREIslamic to “fight for Muslim parental rights”.

He has publicly stated that gay children must be taught to repent and can be seen on YouTube saying: “We believe homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle choice.” He told the Recorder he had left Hizb ut-Tahrir 13 years ago and became involved in the Plashet incident after “an approach by concerned parents”.

The school received dozens of emails expressing “anger” and “outrage”, including several from people with no children at the school. Some complainants declared themselves “The Plashet Working Group” and distributed a complaint instruction manual.

Furious emails accused staff of “forcing”, “pressuring” and “coercing” children to attend the club, “luring” and “bribing” them “with the promises of snacks”.

“It is not you or anyone else’s choice at that school to try and groom my children into being gay,” one read. “Absolutely disgusting what you guys are doing.”

One email said: “I believe that as the headteacher of a predominantly Islam populated school you should cater towards the majority who, like me, believe that our children should not be exposed to this community.”

“You are at total liberty to start moo-ing if you wish,” it said. “But do not tarnish the innocence of Muslim children by forcing this agenda upon them.”

An email to the school from the National Education Union (NEU) said staff suffered “stress” and “anxiety”. One had “a real fear of attack”.

…the school buckled and axed the club, prompting the staff who ran it to walk out in dismay. Plashet declined to comment on why it had shut down the club instead of backing staff.

The National Secular Society (NSS) branded the incident “appalling” and called for government action.

“It is appalling that staff trying to promote equality in schools have become so afraid for their safety that they’ve needed the help of the police,” said NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson. “This is part of a growing trend of teachers and children facing harassment, threats and intimidation from religious activists trying to impose their fundamentalist worldview on schools.