Mum says daughter has been ‘let down’
The mother of the pupil whose powerful open letter resulted in the council commissioning a review into the prevailing culture at Crieff High School has said she feels her daughter and her peers have been“let down”.
Following the release of the report on Thursday last week, fifth year student Anna De Garis’s mum, Kristie De Garis, said in a statement:“Anna has done an incredible job in bringing the serious issues at Crieff High School to light.
“As she rightly said, this should not have been left to children and sadly, through this report, I feel she and her peers have again been let down by the adults tasked with protecting and supporting them.
“The data in this report was collected in a way that means white , straight, cisgendered students are overwhelmingly represented in the numbers and yet those who wrote the report are happy to state that:‘The overall findings were that there was no evidence of a prevailing culture of discriminatory behaviours in relation to racism, sexism, sexual assault and harassment, homophobia and transphobia, however it was evident that some young people have experienced incidents of racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic language and behaviours within the school’.
“Due to the lack of diversity at Crieff and the way that the information was collected it would seem that all this report can tell us [is] that straight, white, cisgendered people do not experience homophobia, racism or transphobia or think there is a culture of discrimination within their school.
“The children who actually experience racism, transphobia and homophobia seem to have been ignored. If 100 per cent of your trans students have experienced transphobia, discrimination and abuse you have a prevailing culture of transphobia. If most of your black, brown or mixed-race students have experienced racism, you have a prevailing culture of racism. If the majority of your LGBTQIA+ students have experienced homophobia and abuse, you have a prevailing culture of homophobia and discrimination.
“The only people who get to decide if there is a culture of racism, homophobia or transphobia (or any form of discrimination) are those who can directly experience those forms of discrimination.”
The statement continues:“It also states in the report that‘no incidents of sexual assault or harassment within the school were brought to the attention of the review team’and yet I know this is untrue as Anna reported her experiences with sexual assault and harassment to the review team.
“If that was ignored and if no other people felt comfortable reporting harassment and assault then this is another huge failure of the review.”
The statement concludes:“We should be listening to children like Anna, not releasing reports that state that their‘accusations’ of a culture of discrimination cannot be backed by evidence.
“What a careless and dangerous statement to make. It throws into question the very lived experience of all the children who came forward.
“This is the opposite of what Anna fought for and she is devastated, exhausted and feeling incredibly let down.”