A young child is taken out of school in term time to visit Pakistan. Colleagues discuss the importance of separating fact from assumption.
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“A young Pakistani pupil has been taken out of school in early July to travel to Pakistan. The teachers are suspicious as the parents are evasive as to the reasons why they are taking their child out of school in term time.”
Why do I think this needs more information? There’s no context, there’s nothing there. That’s completely acceptable to take your child to Pakistan to visit family or not to visit family, or just to visit Pakistan. That’s a fully acceptable thing to do. There’s no concern raised in that just because the parents are evasive. Lots of parents like to take their children out of term to travel.
Obviously, there are local authorities’ reprimands if you take your children out of school. And so, you’re going to be cagey about why you are, in as much as you don’t want to get fined. You need to put a little bit of reckoning about what’s going on in your own head and what your biases towards something and what your concern is towards something.
So, without any concern about [it other than] just the fact that they’re suspicious doesn’t tell me anything. What are you exactly suspicious of? Is there any history? Has the child said they don’t want to go to Pakistan for a reason? Has there been talk about forced marriage? Has there been talks about FGM? Has there been anything else going on or is it literally that a Pakistani child is going to Pakistan? Because that’s not concerning.
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