The response Thelma & I got from my peers for talking about racism in school:

We went to our head of year with pages of evidence. He silenced us and tried to make US apologise to THEM. These boys went on to get glowing references so they could attend top unis/medical schools

So, @TheGSAL, I ask again, what are you doing to prevent this happening to your current students?

First off, I’d like to make a point in saying that this wasn’t an isolated incident. Racism in my school was excused daily. Out of 200, @thelmxa and I were the only black kids in my year. There was not a single black teacher.

As some of the only black kids, Thelma and I were known around school. Of course, no one bothered to recognise us as individuals. We were lumped together as those two black girls that @TheGSAL used whenever they needed smiling black faces for their brochures

As baby SJWs, Thelma and I were very vocal online and in school about racial and social issues. We'd pull up our classmates on their microagressions and push for a more diverse curriculum in school. @TheGSAL didn’t even celebrate BHM until we asked them to.

Of course, they couldn’t be arsed to put any of their own resources into representation for their black students so Thelma and I planned and delivered assemblies for the entire month themed around Black British heroes.

Inevitably, we started to ruffle a few feathers. Our peers began to turn against us and our reputation switched from the bubbly black duo to those hostile black girls with too many opinions. Lmao surprise surprise

One day in 2015 after we’d had a routine Facebook argument about cultural appropriation, some of the brown and white kids in my year decided to add our friend @MonmoMarilyn (a moc) to a group chat where they were racially abusing us

TRIGGER WARNINGS: r*pe, racism, violence, homophobia + general bigotry

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I’m going to stop there with the screenshots because I'm sure you all get the gist by now. If you want to read the whole chat then feel free: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1on80wn4otb3l15/Facebook-Chat.docx?dl=0

After an entire night of crying my friends and I went into school @TheGSAL the next morning with the chat printed out in full to present to my head of year, Mr Brotherton. The evidence was clear, extensive and we followed all the steps youre told to follow when reporting bullying

We were harassed the entire day by other white and brown students. Friends and defenders of the boys in the chat would approach to express their anger for us ‘snitching’. We brushed it off. What's a lil backlash from your peers when you have the school staff behind you, right?

Lmao, wrong. The worst was yet to come

Pat Brotherton, our white head of year (HOY) @TheGSAL took the printout and ordered us to delete the rest. He invalidated our feelings and dismissed the incident as a little disagreement. He refused to accept the school's responsibility to hold these boys to account.

The boys got a short suspension from school before they were allowed back as normal. This was during A Levels. While they were enabled to go on to uni with glowing references, I flopped my A Levels because I had been isolated from the school community and left with no support

In meetings with our HOY he was cold and dismissive. He described it as joke that had got out of hand. He told us he was reluctant to punish the boys too hard as it might ‘affect their futures’. None of the other staff members rallied behind us.

Senior figures in the school were unsurprisingly silent during this time. A lot of energy was put into protecting the @TheGSAL brand but there wasn’t even a single assembly to address the clear racism that existed amongst students

To top it all off, Pat Brotherton threatened to prevent us taking our A Levels @TheGSAL weeks before their start because he inaccurately accused us of inciting violence against the boys. We were asked to apologise to them. We never received a sincere apology from anyone involved.

So, @TheGSAL, please do let me know what concrete actions and structural changes you’ve put in place in the past 5 years to protect your current and future black students from experiencing similar trauma.

I’ve just found out that there were in fact staff members who were outraged and wanted to see the boys face just punishment but they were actively silenced by higher ups. @TheGSAL Any response?

This tweet is specifically for Kasim Rehman. You’re a coward and I don’t accept your apology. How can you be sincerely repentant while admitting ‘Tbh I’d not even thought about it much’??? You’ve had 5 years to do this properly pls leave me alone now