Tim Ireland on tabloids, media, blogs and politics
Quintin Kynaston teachers ‘on duty’
This entry was posted on
Friday, September 8th, 2006 at
11:09 am and is filed
under The War on Stupid.
Kudos to the lovely teacher who busied herself curtailing her students’ democratic right to protest yesterday (see video).
Sweetums, if you ever read this, there are two things that you need to know:
1. This post has been edited since its creation. I initially sought to publicise this event and your role in it widely. If you read the comments below, you’ll understand why I changed my mind.
2. If you were muscled into this position, you really should ask yourself if you would do the same thing all over again… and keep a very close eye on the dirtbag(s) who muscled you into it.
UPDATE – Even after the update of post and change of mind, I feel that Jo Shuter deserves a mention.
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about 5 years ago
Tim, I don’t think that’s necessarily wise or good. She’s presumably a teacher, and doing what she thinks is her job. As the man off camera at the end makes clear, they are being egged on and exploited by the SW mob, who talk about freedom but don’t tolerate it themselves.
about 5 years ago
I just think that this video deserves to be the top search result for her name. Maybe David Taylor has my blood up.I take your point about SW, but that pudding is being over-egged for political gain by others this morning. If you have a poke around, you’ll find plenty of evidence of dissent at this school that does not involve the SWP.
about 5 years ago
Manic, I understand your point. But the fact that there was dissent already doesn’t excuse the SW lot.Also, this woman is a teacher, and, as I said, doing what she thinks is her job. She’s not in political office or taking the initiative to smear like your other enemies. She may be wrong. But we’re the good guys, remember. Please don’t fuck everything up by being the bully here.The best thing Blair said was “We have to be whiter than white”. He couldn’t manage it. You can.
about 5 years ago
*sigh*I do take your point… and it’s a bloody good one. Bloodlust is a terrible thing. Post will be amended in 5, 4, 3…
about 5 years ago
Backword Dave – (apologies in advance for a rather long post). You need to be aware that in fact there was a broad coalition of socialists, trade unionists and antiwar activists present and that the event was partly organised by a popular teacher at the school who now appears to have been sacked for his trouble. It’s also worth mentioning that there is a School Students Against the War movement in the school, and they themselves were quite active in the demonstration. I understand that there are some people who have a problem with the SWP for whatever reason, but you are being paranoid in putting it down to us and our ‘egging on’ the kids. Yes, some activists did encourage the children taking part in the protest to shout slogans – but if you saw the interviews on Newsnight and elsewhere, you know that they were not dupes, but quite political and angry themselves. Don’t forget that the huge antiwar demonstrations were also attended by loads of young people. I personally met a young student yesterday who was Lebanese, and the least that can be said is that he didn’t require any egging on. Some of the students didn’t approve of the demonstration and they were quite capable of explaining to us the reasons in an intelligentway. None of us tried to tell them what to do. It’s wrong to claim that these kids were being bullied by anyone but the head teaching staff at the school and the sixth formers they sent out – and their role was clearly to ensure that Blair had a nice ride. The fact that many students refused to be intimidated was inspiring.One other thing to bear in mind is that the head teacher of that school ha snow issued a statement to the Morning Star, which reads as follows:”Many thanks for your email. I can assure you that this behaviour was not supported by anyone at the school. Indeed we were horrified that our children had been exploited and abused by a political organisation, members of which had been outside the school gates since 8am. Somehow details of the visit, though confidential, had been leaked through a website and a picket and demonstration had been organised without our knowledge or consent.The school had not been closed specifically for the visit. We had a planned half day induction for students followed by staff training in the afternoon. Organisationally this had been in the school calendar since before the summer break.Our students were put in serious danger physically and emotionally by the outrageous actions of these political ‘rabble rousers’ who had no concern for them as young people but simply used them as pawns for their own political ends.I have today held a staff meeting and will be holding a whole school assembly later to explain to the students how the actions of 50 out of 1500 have been perceived and how it clearly reflects so poorly on the school.We pride ourselves on being one of the most improved schools in the UK. Our students are always our pride and joy. It is completely out of character for them to behave in such an unruly, rude and disrespectful manner. However the role played by these activists was cleverly orchestrated and the children were merely fodder for a political campaign.I personally remain a big supporter of Tony Blair whose policies I value and who I personally feel is a man of integrity and honesty.Many thanks for taking the time to contact me. I hope that this will help to set the record straight.”Has this person not openly declared a political agenda? Would it not appear that this head teacher has manipulated these children on behalf of the leader of Britain’s biggest “political organisation”?The General Teaching Council for England says:”Teachers treat young people fairly and with respect, take their knowledge, views, opinions and feelings seriously, and value diversity and individuality. They model the characteristics they are trying to inspire in young people, including enthusiasm for learning, a spirit of intellectual enquiry, honesty, tolerance, social responsibility, patience, and a genuine concern for other people.”(http://www.gtce.org.uk/standards/disc/StatementOfProfValues)The least that can be said is that these teachers did not adhere to those standards. If this particular teacher thought she was doing her job, I’d be interested to know what standards she thought she was adhering to. Ones set, presumably, by Ms Shuter, the self-publicising Blairite head teacher.
about 5 years ago
You will soon find that the penalty for aiding and abetting known war criminals and mass-murderers is very severe indeed. I trust the music department is well supplied with piano wire? Please do not squander your last hours on this Earth. Glad to be of service.
about 4 years ago
I know this post is fairly old but I only just stumbled upon it and thought I could, show some light on the things you people didn’t know.Lenin’s interpretation of the statement is actually fairly accurate. Ms Shuter was and is a blairite, I know this from many conversations I had with her, and the fact that she was very cosy with people from his office when he was PM.Q.K under Jo Shuter has a terrible record on freedom of speech, the moment she arrived at the school she ‘let go’ half the teacher body and replaced them with her friends from other schools. Q.K became it’s own little dictatorship, students had little say on what went on in the school, anyone who expressed an opinion was sent out of the room, and a given a black mark on their permanent record, and god forbid you protested, that was met with a direct threat from Ms Shuter that you would be “kicked out of this school so fast no one will remember your name”You guys may also be surprised to know, that the lady in the video, the one “just doing her job” wasn’t doing her job. She is a close and very personal friend of Jo Shuter, with a record worse on freedom of speech and expression, and I can guarantee she was sent there to do that by Ms Shuter.