Narrative control I

This piece came after hearing the most recent story from a couple with a young child whose challenges mean it would make ordinary school currently impossible.  If you have read the shocking article in the Guardian recently about Kingspark, a school for children with special needs in Dundee you may be wondering how it could happen that school remains operational.   It is thanks to a campaigning mum, Beth Morrison, winner of many awards, that this came to national attention else those abuses would still not be known.  

The couple I met had made a Subject Access Request and found out what had been written and shared about them from informal conversations they had had with public sector workers.  The people working for the public bodies had secretly written down the conversations and the inferences they had drawn and then reported them.  These behaviours by their employees are sanctioned by the state if there may be a "perceived risk" to a  child deemed "in need".

I have known this couple slightly for some years and I have also seen them from time to time out walking as a family in town. They always struck me as kind, doting, aware and committed to their child.  I never once saw anything I would have considered a risk - quite the opposite.  On the other hand I have known someone with the power to instigate the removal of children from their homes who themselves lived a troubled life,  in squalid conditions, with children.

This state-snooping is what happens when citizens in ordinary jobs are given extraordinary powers. When state-snoopers, the foot soldiers, are doing research on the case against the family, no one person is responsible for what happens to them, so if they have any doubts, their consciences are salved, though not always.  'Angela Allan' is a parent whose story is on the No2NP website.  She was confronted with the consequences of tittle-tattle reported by a teacher resulting in a closed meeting with fifteen people from different state departments and a social work order for Angela.  The teacher ultimately apologised saying she had been sent to spy on Angela under the guise of helping her son who was flexi-schooling, schooling part-time at home.  She reported things like the child had been wearing a onesie at home. The headteacher in Perth and Kinross had sent her and the teacher had not felt able to say no.  While the foot soldiers gather the information the decision to act against the family is left to someone higher up. Everyone involved though is complicit.  Consider how a causal conversation can today turn into a file on a family. A chat with the 'subjects', seen in a certain light, becomes, too readily, a concern.  Officials start to see things the same way as the instigator because of peer pressure and because who wants to find themselves not 'covered'.  Weirdly, this collusion starts to be a good thing for the authorities - we have all decided to think the same so it must be true.

*

It was like this, says
the housing officer,
fitting,
the social worker,
skewing,
the health visitor,
slanting,
the teacher,
assuming,
the police,
concluding,
colluding in meetings
behind closed doors.

No, there is no obligation to inform you;
you may apply,
request,
ask permission,
make a "Subject Access Request"
to the appropriate government department
with payment of the relevant fee.

That friendly chat with the council Blockwart? 
She mentioned her family,
the pet dog,
then wrote a report:
there were pans on the stove,
the house was cluttered,
a duvet in the living room.
The child is autistic,
folglich: "in need",
Forderung: a hearing
And the Children's Reporter.

Notes:

Blockwart "the title of a lower Nazi Party political rank responsible for the political supervision of a neighborhood. Referred to in common parlance as Blockwart (Block Warden), the officials were in charge to form the link between the Nazi authorities and the general population. The derogatory term Blockwart ("snoop") survives in German colloquial language." (Wikipedia)

Folglich: therefore (German)

Forderung: Official or legal recommendation. (German)

Role of the Children's Reporter:  Receives referrals for children and young people who are believed to require compulsory measures of supervision. Investigates and refers to a hearing if necessary.