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Cases of discrimination in education
The FSG’s Equality Department contacted the mother to tell her what she needed to do, i.e. file a complaint with
the Almeria Department of Education regarding the ill treatment and request the admission of her son at the
school since his name really was on the lists.
The mother decided against that and moved her son to another school. She said that she didn’t want to force
the issue because they would have it in for her son from the beginning and that would be worse for him.
13.
Jaen.
Education.
Direct discrimination.
An FSG Acceder employment programme participant enrolled in Adult
classes to earn his secondary school diploma.
He told us that in Spanish class the teacher was lecturing about the origin of the Spanish language: “it comes
from Latin and also has words from Arabic and Romany...”. At that point, one of the other students said: “That
makes no sense. The Gypsies didn’t give us anything. They should all be burned ...”, to which the young man
replied: “be careful, you might be sorry for what you just said” to which the student replied “who’s going to
make me sorry?” The young man then replied: “it could be me as I am Roma.”
After a long conversation, in the end non-Roma student apologised to the Roma student.
14.
Cadiz.
Education.
Direct discrimination.
The FSG office in Cadiz reported the case of a Roma woman who
called in at the academy where her son was receiving support classes because one of the teachers had made a
racist comment against Roma claiming that “they smell bad”.
The mother lodged a complaint at the local police station because she felt that this comment was aimed at her
son and feared that the child could have further difficulties with this teacher. In any case, she decided to move
her son to a different after-school academy for fear of reprisals.