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Tag: Alum Rock Community Forum

  • Parents seek to move or home educate their children over No Outsiders classes

    Parents seek to move or home educate their children over No Outsiders classes

    Parents of children at the Parkfield Primary school have said that they plan to home educate or move their children to a different school.

    • Parents say they will home school their children

    • Parents say they held a mass walkout of their children on the 12th of July

    • Say they feel victimised and discriminated against

    • Offer an apology to the LGBT community

    In a statement, parents of children at Parkfield Primary School on the Alum Rock Community Forum have said that they will homeschool or move their children out of the school because of the No Outsiders programme. They have also said that they have felt discriminated against over the “hijacking” of their children’s education.

    Parkfield Primary, where 98 percent of pupils are Muslim, has become the centre of a row over whether children should be taught about same-sex relationships and differing gender expressions via a programme called No Outsiders.

    The No Outsiders programme deals with social issues, race, religion, gender identity, age and disabilities, however, the parent’s protests have seemingly become a one issue protest, over the LGBT+ aspects of the lessons.

    Despite this, the parents claim in their statement that they “unequivocally condemn” the labels of bigots and homophobes that have been levelled against them since their protests and demonstrations were reported on back in March.

    They wrote, “We would like to reach out once again to our LGBT community to clear up any misconception, build bridges and strength [sic] our bond in this diverse community by offering our apology for any actions that may have upset them as this was not our intention”.

    Considering homeschooling

    Parents say that they feel that they’re not being listened, reaching an “impasse” with the school’s leadership team – saying that the school has an “unwillingness to build, repair and bridge this important relationship with parents”.

    The statement continues, “therefore as a consequence… are currently seeking to move their children to alternative local schools and considering homeschooling option to best sever [sic] the needs of their children’s educational needs”.

  • Community which filmed the anti-LGBT “No Outsiders” protests has rife homophobia on its Facebook page

    Community which filmed the anti-LGBT “No Outsiders” protests has rife homophobia on its Facebook page

    Alum Rock Community Forum, a Facebook community which filmed the anti-No Outsiders protests outside Parkfield Primary school is filled with vile homophobic abuse.

    Alum Rock Community Forum which was instrumental in bringing live footage from the protests outside the Parkfield Primary school in April has uploaded another video to its group. In this video, Ferhan Khan, an out Muslim activist, who marched in Birmingham Pride’s parade, was denied access to the pride, due to not having a wristband.

     

    However, comments from viewers and members of the group have been widely homophobic and moderators of the Facebook group have as yet, failed to remove any of the vile comments, allowing it to become a breeding ground of hateful bigotry.

    The video currently has around 55 comments, with the majority of the comments calling the activist homophobic names, such as fa***t, “drama queen” and many questioning Khan’s gender.

    One commenter even went as far as to say that security should have battered him.

    Another called upon the “Almighty” to “destroy all gays”.

    The group, which has just under 10,000 users describes itself as “a non-profit organisation that provides a platform for the residents of Alum Rock to share their ideas and work together for a better future”.

    The group first uploaded the video with the following remarks, “#LGBT Muslim campaigner Ferhan Khan who led this weekend’s BirminghamPride parade alongside Parkfield School teacher Andrew Moffat was kicked out of the event security staff. Is this the #love #nooutsiders #Equalities being promoted?”

    It then edited the statement to, “#LGBT campaigner Ferhan Khan who led this weekend’s BirminghamPride parade alongside Parkfield School teacher Andrew Moffat was kicked out of the event security staff. #nooutsiders #Equalities”

    The group has now removed the video as well as all the comments.

    *This story was updated on the 29th May 2019 to reflect the fact that the group had removed the video and all associated comments.