Mum pulls daughter from school in row over 'black' poems

nlnews@archant.co.uk
30 May 2007

A MOTHER has withdrawn her six-year-old daughter from a Hornsey school after taking offence at children's poems about the colour black.

Recruitment consultant Tanya Smith, 25, who is black, removed her daughter from Campsbourne Junior School, last Friday after becoming upset by the display of poems on a corridor wall.

Miss Smith, of Trulock Court, Tottenham, said: "The poems were saying the colour black is evil, the colour black is negative.

"There should have been some balance. There should have been something positive about black. What is it saying to my child; she knows she is black. What sub-conscious message is it putting in their minds?"

She says she spoke to John Goulding, headteacher at the Nightingale Lane school, and was told the poems were simply the result of children expressing themselves.

"It's offensive to me because I'm black and to my daughter," she said. "There's nothing like black is strong. It is all associated with hate and evil. There's nothing about the colour white. You can't sing Bah, Bah Black Sheep so why do we still leave these works up on the wall?"

A spokesman for Haringey Council, commenting on behalf of the school, said: "The poems in question were written by pupils as part of a national poetry competition.

"This involved associating emotions with a range of imagery, including colours. None of the poems made reference to any kind of skin colour or ethnicity.

"Governors at Campsbourne School will now be responding to the single complainant.

"Haringey's schools reflect the rich diversity of Haringey and we encourage pupils to celebrate that diversity.