According to The Mail on Sunday, court documents reveal that a group of around 30 pupils intimidated other pupils who would not fast during Ramadan, pressured a girl into wearing a hijab, and coerced another girl into leaving the school choir by telling her it was forbidden in Islam.
The pupils also started holding prayer rituals in the playground, and put pressure on pupils who chose not pray.
The school said the prayer rituals created an “intimidatory and aggressive atmosphere” and “resulted in a division in the playground between the Muslim and the non-Muslim children which had never happened before”.
Birbalsingh said the school’s governing body decided to ban the prayer rituals after weighing up all other options because they had become a “catalyst for abuse and threats”.
Email threatens: “you will be dealt with like the filthy dog that you are”
In March, TTT was suspended for two days after displaying “extreme rudeness” towards a teacher who objected to her bringing a prayer mat to the playground.
The suspension prompted “the most appalling abuse and threats” to teachers, including threatening phone calls and emails.
One email said: “If you carry on disrespecting our Muslim children you will be dealt with like the filthy dog that you are.”
Another warned: “'We have planted several bombs in the building, many of which are hidden in toilets, hall rooms and classes on all floors. These are the consequences of your actions.”
Individual staff members were also attacked. One teacher’s home had a brick thrown through the window. A break-in was also attempted at a teacher’s home. A black teacher was subjected to racist abuse, and other teachers received death threats.
Is it me or does this seem like an extremely one sided view of whatever was going on?
No, it is one-sided reporting. I wonder how much of the praying was used as a means of push-back by pupils at Michaela to the authoritarian way the school is run. I don’t think I’d like a school where even in my breaks and lunches I have to have conversations with my teachers using prompt-cards.