A young girl from Dyce has been left questioning whether to continue learning Mandarin after being accused of racism by an Asian supply teacher.
Lola-Ann, 9, attends Brimmond Primary School in Bucksburn, where learning a new language is encouraged and supported.
Her father, Gary Dawson, was proud of his daughter for taking on the difficult language but feared she might struggle due to her possibly being autistic.
Gary, 34, is autistic, and there is a chance Lola-Ann is too, but that has not stopped the enthusiastic and energetic girl from paving her own way.
Her father says she is a “very sociable person” and has no trouble making friends, despite being at the school for only six months.
However, her confidence took a big knock due to a recent incident in her Mandarin language class.
What did she say?
Speaking to The Press and Journal, Gary explained what happened in the primary 5 classroom.
While the incident left Lola-Ann “devastated”, Gary made clear he in no way blamed the school for what happened and that they handled the situation well.
He said: “Her usual Mandarin teacher was off that day, and so they had to get a supply teacher in.
“The supply teacher came into the classroom, and Lola-Ann greeted her by saying ‘Ni hao’ (hello) in Mandarin. The teacher replied, ‘Is that because of the way I look? That’s being racist.’
“That hit Lola-Ann’s confidence to the point where she no longer wanted to carry on with Mandarin.”
Gary said it upset Lola-Ann for the rest of the day.
She was so upset that her friends alerted her teacher.
He says that when Lola-Ann is passionate about something, it is “intense”, and she wants to share it with others.
Gary believes the teacher “overreacted” given since she was tasked with teaching a Mandarin class. questioning “So why wouldn’t the children speak Mandarin when possible?”.
“For a supply teacher to be fully trained and to accuse a nine-year-old of racism, I just completely disagree with the situation,” he added.
Lola-Ann’s confidence was ‘destroyed’ after the incident
Gary says that while Lola-Ann understood what the word “racist” meant, she was brought up to see everyone equally, and an open-minded attitude was normalised at home.
Following the incident, Lola-Ann has refused to continue learning Mandarin for fear of another mishap.
Gary said: “It has affected her massively. She doesn’t want to do it anymore, and the teacher has to keep speaking to her, saying, ‘It’s OK, you are not going to get that reaction every time.’”
He praised the school for its handling of the situation, saying “they couldn’t have done more to support Lola-Ann”.
He called them immediately after to speak about what happened, and the school said the situation had been “dealt with”.
Dad wants to raise awareness due to impact on young daughter
Gary said the incident had “shattered” his daughter’s confidence.
Therefore, he decided to speak up and raise awareness to hopefully help other children in similar situations.
The incident has prompted the family to try to get an official diagnosis for Lola-Ann, as autism is sometimes hard to detect.
He said: “When you’re autistic, your mind works differently. When you accomplish something, you want to reach out and share it with others. But to have that dismissed can be harmful.”
The situation has shown Gary that he and his daughter are very similar.
He said: “Seeing the similarities in her made me jump into action. I would rather get her referred so we can know for sure.”
An Aberdeen City Council spokesperson said: “The school was made aware that a child was upset following making a greeting in Mandarin.
“The child’s parents have since been in discussions around the incident with the school and are happy that it had been dealt with in an appropriate manner.”
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