The Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside in London, England, has joined survivors and advocates in calling for a public inquiry into past cases where Black children were wrongly classified as “educationally subnormal” and placed in schools for children with physical and mental disabilities.
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, spoke at a March 12 debate. The Guardian reports that she urged Keir Starmer to seek justice for survivors and shed light on the long-term impact of the practice within the education system. Johnson expressed concern that the full extent of how many Black children were wrongly placed in “educationally subnormal” (ESN) schools during the 1960s and ’70s remains unknown, with many receiving little to no support from the system.
“Many racist barriers still exist in education,” Johnson said, adding that the barriers have “evolved directly from the policies and attitudes that drove the ESN scandal.”
“The closure of ESN schools in the 1980s directly led to a rapid expansion in the use of school exclusions, and we began to see higher numbers incarcerated in prisons,” she explained. “The expansion of the use of set and tiering in education whereby certain groups of children [in] increasing numbers are being denied the opportunity to sit exams at certain levels and then denied the opportunity to progress in educational settings, including going to university.”
Survivors, campaigners, lawyers, educational experts, and psychologists shared their testimonies in Parliament the day before the debate and detailed how the “systematic failure” impacted them or the lives of Black children in different ways. Among those who testified include Noel Gordon, who was just six years old when an education department official visited his home and told his mother that he was a “dunce.”
“What he was alluding to, they were placing me in a school for subnormal children; with no curriculum. This was government policy,” Gordon said.
“They put two of my older brothers in the local special school. I suffered a catalog of abuse from the age of six to 16. I was beaten over the head at 12 in the playground and called a Black bastard by Christine, a member of staff, for no reason.”
Rene Stephens, 58, a survivor, broke down in tears as he recounted the physical and sexual abuse he endured within the education system and the lack of support.
Denise Davidson recalled being placed in a school alongside children who wore baby bibs or relied on wheelchairs—a stark contrast to the educational environment she was accustomed to in her native Jamaica.When Davidson’s mother tried to organize her transfer to a more comprehensive school, one educator referred to the child as a “cretin.”
“I remember my parents returning home and my dad finding a dictionary and looking up the word cretin,” Davidson recalled. “My mum was sobbing at this point because she thought I had some disease.”
She continued attending the school alongside her classmates, many of whom were disabled.
“The same fundamental systems that excluded Black children from mainstream education decades ago still exist today -– just in different forms,” Johnson said at the debate. “ESN schools may have gone, but Black children are still disproportionately pushed into pupil referral units and alternative provision, feeding into the school-to-prison pipeline.”
Catherine McKinnell, the education minister, stated that while the government has no plans to hold a public inquiry, they are open to hearing from survivors and advocates. She emphasized, “Britain is a country that will respect your contribution and give you a fair chance to succeed in life.”
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