Blatant racism in school, no punishment, need advice?

Question

I'm an American living in Austria. I'm not sure if racism works differently over here or not. But, I had a situation happen today that simply blew my mind.

I was picking my daughters up from school and when I came out I heard a commotion going on. I saw my daughter's friend Adam standing there with this sad look on his face while some kid named Karl was yelling insults at him.

Adam is 8 years old, comes from Africa, and is a really sweet kid. Karl was yelling the "N" word at him, calling him a monkey, and saying that when he grew up that he would make little monkey babies.

The other kids standing around got the message. They were all yelling at Karl "What are you..crazy?" I thought Adam was going to cry so, I went right over to him and said "Honey, what is going on? Why is that kid saying that stuff to you?" Adam was totally overwhelmed and just shrugged his shoulders.

So, I marched into school and got the first teacher I could find and told her what was going on. Continued...

Answer 1

Go to the head of the school board and complain. If that doesn't work, go to the police.

Answer 2

Poor Adam! It's so sad that he has to experience this kind of ignorance and hatred at such a young age. That sort of thing will stay with him for the rest of his life. The teacher should've taken it seriously. Karl's parents should be notified and educated about how their son should treat others. I wouldn't let it go, I would go tell the principal what happened and make sure he/she knows what the teacher did. The teacher obviously needs some additional training on handling these situations. At least the other kids knew it was wrong! I hope Adam is doing well.

Answer 3

I live in England and if that was me I would go to the headteacher (principal in America) and I would explain to them calmly  what happened and then say if nothing gets done about this you will take it further and go to the person above them-that is against the law in this country as it is racial discrimination-hope this helps.

Answer 4

:O That Karl would be shot if he was doing that in america..

I'm not sure what to say, tell their principal, he'd probably do something about it.

Answer 5

I would be focusing on education rather than punishment.  8 is still a teachable age.  Try having a discussion with the principal (or the pta) about racism at the school and brainstorming measures the school can be taking to prevent both incidents like the one you witnessed and the more insidious problem of kids having racist views (even if they're not expressing them quite so blatantly).  Some schools have diversity committees to work on things like that -- perhaps you could suggest one.  Many schools do things like choosing reading material to teach about diversity, having social competency programs that address diversity and also address name-calling and other obnoxious behaviors, etc.

Answer 6

go to the headmaster or whatever they have in Austria and tell them what happened. also tell them that what the teacher did.  

but GREAT for you for standing up for what you believe in and coming to this child's aide.

Answer 7

If this was the first time that Karl has made these remarks, then the reprimand was correct, if is was something ongoing, then the parents would need to be contacted(I can only assume that this wouldn't help because at his young age, he probably heard these statements at home)