Sana*, a school teacher, was shocked when one of her pupils called her a “bomber”. When Sana reported the incident to the school leadership team (SLT), she was disappointed to find the SLT lacked the urgency and concern to deal with the incident promptly and effectively. Sana’s disappointment quickly turned into distress when she discovered that the school had no effective procedure in place to deal with incidents of bullying by students. She contemplated a situation where she would have to face Islamophobic bullying from pupils on a daily basis without any formal routes to resolve the matter.
Sana contacted the IRU to report the incident and seek advice. She decided that she wanted to resolve the dispute using the school’s internal processes. With the IRU’s help, Sana submitted a formal complaint to the school with her proposed resolution being that the school draft a procedure to deal with incidents of hate and bullying against teachers by students. She was determined to protect other Muslim teachers from similar abuse. Sana’s complaint led to the school working with her to implement a formal procedure to counter incidents of hate and bullying against teachers by students. She was delighted with the outcome of her complaint and valued having an IRU caseworker listening to her concerns and supporting her throughout the complaint process.