Goodrich School in Daily Mail

[corinne R]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379735/Black-headmistress-Shirley-Patterson-saw-lynch-mob-parents-poster-called-police.html

[showboat]

Wow. Just...wow!

I'm not sure who to be more astounded at. The Daily Mail for running such an over-sensationalised piece - (though that is no real surprise!),I mean, what have peoples house prices got to do with anything - or the teacher for being so over-reacting.

[Earl Aelfheah]

WTF?!

[jctg]

Didn't loads of posts get removed on here about something to do with this....?

[Huguenot]

It's the Mail.

There will be a lot more to this than meets the eye. Certainly Devid Moyle will have been intelligent and capable enough to be aware of the huge number of issues and sensitivities this picture could throw up.

Mind you, it seems to have been resolved now, so probably best to let it go.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Just to clarify, my WTF is aimed at the Mail-as you say I'm sure the story itself is spun to fit the Mails agenda, but the referencing of house prices to describe people is unreal, even for the mail.

[duchessofdulwich]

i think there was a thread running on this story a couple of months ago?

[Dorothy]

I wonder how it got in to the National Press.

But the Daily Mail does love these political correctness gorn mad stories.

Like many other Goodrich parents I am heartily effedoff that this issue has caused so much bad feeling within the school.

[showboat]

I'm just going to say this. I really am not trying to troll - and I'm certainly no fan of the Daily Mail and I take anything they say with a great pile of salt (being an ED resident I take it with a great pile of organic pink South Sea salt!). I will totally respect anyone who disagrees with me, and I'm not, not, not trying to get into a flame war.

However, I do think any inner London headteacher should be smart enough to approach the parent concerned first, before escalating the whole thing. The guy who made the poster...well, who knows what he was smoking when he came up with that idea. I also don't understand why the posters weren't cleared by the headteacher in the first place before being put up, but that's a different conversation.

Overall though, a headteacher needs to be diplomatic and cautious with things like this. Doesn't look to me like she was.

[aspidistra]

I'm with Mr Moyles on the Darwin v the crazies/creationists thing.

A pity if Ms Patterson took it personally - and seems somewhat over-reacting to call in the fuzz. I hope it has all indeed blown over.

[duchessofdulwich]

good call showboat

[Huguenot]

As I said, I reckon that you'll find the DM story to which you're reacting has very little relationship with the truth of the matter.

Showboat's response makes the assumption that the story is true, and there's absolutely no reason to make that assumption.

We had some fun a while back finding out the 'truth' about a few DM stories. A classic was a DM story about a pensioner arrested out of the blue for having a 'penknife' in his glovebox he used for his picnics.

Turned out that it was a substantial combat knife that the thug had just retrieved from his car after a drinking session in order to threaten a visitor at the pub. The landlord had called the police because he suspected the thug was drunk, had just seen him threatening violence with a combat knife, and was worried about what might happen next.

Not quite the same eh?

Same with this story.

Who's to know whether Moyles hadn't been behaving obstructively to the head over a sustained period of time, whether he had been warned about the religious (Darwin) and racial (Mississippi lynchings) connotations of the poster, whether he had deliberately adjusted the image in order to give 'Darwin' an unusual appearance compared with the whiteness of the lynch mob, whether he had been specifically told not to put it up on the grounds for this reason, whether he did all this and himself because he wanted to discredit the head in a manufactured environment?

I'm not suggesting this is the case, just putting an alternative spin on events to the one presented by the Mail.

We don't know, and we'll certainly learn nothing from the Mail.

My advice is don't make any assumptions about this story.

[showboat]

Hmmm, how to respond? Deep cleansing breath...

1. As my attempt at self-depracation failed (see comment about pink sea salt), let me be clear. I am no fan of the Daily Mail and view anything they write with deep scepticism. My views on Melanie Phillips cannot be repeated out loud.

2. If you have, as you cryptically allude to, some better information on the other side of the story, please share it, rather than making it look like you know better but don't wish to enlighten us. I'm sure that's not what you're trying to do. So please share.

3. If a headteacher in a school has gotten to the point where they're calling the union, council and police, then SOMETHING has gone very wrong SOMEWHERE in the school. I showed this thread to my mother, who spent over twenty years teaching in a New Cross primary that got superb Ofsted reports (and thus would presumebly know how to handle delicate situations) and that was what she felt.

If it gets to this point then systems have failed. And in truth I'm not sure who's responsibility that is. I would suggest that if Moyles has been being awkward then he needs to be dealt with, and prosecuted if there are grounds for it. If one were cynical they could suggest that a white city executive could certainly find himself unhappy that his children now had a black headmistress - but that really would be making an assumption!;-)

I guess I feel that headteachers need to have thick skins, especially ones that take a job in East Dulwich, where parents will expect high standards. It very possible that she was advised not to comment by her union, but I think it's a shame she didn't especially when the Daily Mail are one of those papers who really need to be confronted.

[showboat]

Actually, I'll go further. She should've responded. If she has a case to make then she must make it. No comment leaves the way open for fools and bigots to decry multiculturalism.

I took a look at the commentry boards under that article. The responses from the public make me believe that through her silence she harms efforts to stamp down on those bigots. I want to hear her side of the story, but can't find it anywhere. How does that help?

[Huguenot]

I don't have any better knowledge, I'm not trying to insinuate anything.

I'm merely saying that the Daily Mail has no reputation for truth, it does have a reputation for supporting white middle class citizens at the expense of other parts of society. It does have a reputation for manufacturing perspectives from which to attack 'political correctness'.

It may have got the story right, but I note that its source is merely 'a friend' - and that doesn't bode well.

It is indeed sad, but to be honest we have no idea how thick a skin it has been necessary for her to have, since we have no way of knowing the behaviour to which she was subject to.

I come from a family of teachers who have been subject to baseless assault and battery from otherwise upstanding white middle class parents. We've had our cars spray painted with abuse.

As a 15 year old I was headbutted in the street by an unknown adult assailant on the grounds that I was my father's son.

I can assure you that teachers in general, especially headteachers, and their families have very thick skin.

The fact that they don't comment on threads like this one is testament to their resilience.

[showboat]

Oh for (@#8" sake...

I am not expecting her to comment on this thread, either by coming on here on by talking about it elsewhere. That's ludicrous.

What I mean is that if we say nothing when confronted by people like Paul Dacre and the c+?/s that work for him (my patience is slipping) then all that is out there is their point of view. I'll be honest - and this is an assumption - I reckon that Moyles guy is a twat. I mean really! In what world is that poster a good idea? Anywhere? Nowhere! But how much has gone wrong somehow that it got to this level? That's what I want to know. I think Ms. Patterson needs to speak up, because a dignified silence is not, in this case, the right move.

It seems we both come from a family of teachers. As I said, over twenty years in New Cross - my mum saw her fair share of nutty parents. I never got the back blast of it luckily, and I need no educating on the bilious and hypocritical ways of the white middle class (even though that's what I am!). I've experienced how vile they can be in my own life, cloaking themselves in respectibility and prefixing everything with "I'm not prejudiced, but...".

That's why I want her version of events.

[showboat]

Or, if she really doesn't want to comment, then her union should be issuing a statement. That's what they're for - to advise, assit and protect. I reckon this falls under their mandate.

[NowNo]

showboat Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Or, if she really doesn't want to comment, then

> her union should be issuing a statement. That's

> what they're for - to advise, assit and protect. I

> reckon this falls under their mandate.

Try to imagine that you are alone all alone on a desert Island,

and then suddenly you see yourself living in a place where there are to many

cars. You are follow all the time and plus !!! private messages!!!!

[showboat]

.

[Oldskooler]

As a fellow goodrich mum, I would just like to point out the headmistress does in fact live with her son in the said ?250,000 flat not daughter as the Daily mail states. Does question how fully accurate the article is.... just a thought.

[NowNo]

I was told 1 house with one way out for her son and another for her mum.

Simple they will comment! Becouse they know that they know everything

Follow , follow, and follow and every were how exhausted that can be.

[NowNo]

Hope now is clear !

[Huguenot]

I've no idea what you're losing your rag about showboat, we seem to be in agreement no?

Great stuff!

[NowNo]

Your questions should come to them directly. I think are some previous comments

that are important we need to sort it out.

M you.

[Emily]

The slurs on the Moyles on this thread are disgusting. They are not racists, and they have given a huge amount of time and effort to the school - all unpaid. As far as I know, nothing in the newspaper story was inaccurate. To accuse him of being a racist and of 'doctoring' the image is not only absurd but extremely offensive. He is a decent person