The mother of a pupil who was involved in a violent altercation at a Jewish school this week has spoken of her distress at the school’s failure to address concerns over “pupils’ safety and racial tension between student groups”.
A fight broke out between Matilda Livingstone, a Jewish sixth form student, and classmates during Tuesday’s lunch hour at Kantor King Solomon High School in Ilford, Essex.
King Solomon’s intake includes children from a range of ethnic backgrounds and faiths.
Her mother, Naomi Salmon, told the JC: “The school has huge issues with segregation and there are conflicts along racial lines.
“By doing nothing to address it, they are condoning it. It does appear that they have lost control — it doesn’t feel very safe.”
The school confirmed the incident originated in a “verbal dispute which started out of school” which escalated to a “physical altercation”.
“The school takes such an incident very seriously and so it was immediately investigated and the school took appropriate actions and provided additional support where necessary."
King Solomon also announced on Monday that it will introduce random weapon checks at the school gates in the coming weeks, although it denied it had “specific concerns that our students are bringing weapons into school”.
It comes at a time when Jewish schools across London are struggling to deal with a spate of violent incidents. Rachel Fink, the JFS headteacher, wrote twice to parents this week to inform them of an “increasing number of muggings and attempted muggings” in the area between the school and the nearest underground station.
Citing a “significant shortfall in the costs of providing security”, Mrs Fink appealed for parents with CST training to assist members of staff in supervising the area before and after school.
One JFS sixth form student told the JC he “would be lying if I said I felt comfortable walking around Kingsbury”, while a father said: “Since my kids have been going there we’ve used smartphone apps to find out whether they’ve reached school. “Perhaps they need to ditch the uniform. The kids are getting targeted. I don’t know if it’s all antisemitic but they have nice phones and won’t fight back.”
Mrs Fink also complained of reductions in Home Office funding, which is administered by the CST, last year.
The CST said that all Jewish schools received a four per cent cut in government funding last year, “due to the growth in the number of schools that are now eligible for the grant.”
Debbie Lebrett, headteacher of Hasmonean Boys’ School, in Hendon, also contacted parents regarding a series of muggings and “unpleasant incidents” which have taken place on bus routes used by pupils.
