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| THE VOICE APRIL 2023
News Feature
The lasting trauma of ESN survivors who were labelled ‘backwards’ are stepping up and taking the government to court. By Vic Motune
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S A SIX-YEAR-OLD in the 1970s, Noel Gordon was sent to an “educationally subnormal” boarding school, some 15 miles from his family home. The reason wasn’t due to any intellectual or developmental disability. It was a result of undiagnosed sickle cell anaemia. As a four-year-old he had gone to hospital to have a tooth removed, and while treating him doctors found out that Noel had the condition. The medication he was given triggered a serious reaction. But then, bizarrely, his health issues saw him classified as having “learning difficulties.” His parents were never given any evidence of this. “When I was six, a man from the local education department came to our house,” Mr Gordon, pictured inset below, recalls. “Because the hospital had informed them that I had to be monitored for the rest of my life, the man told my parents that they had a boarding school for me with a matron where I would be taken care of when I was not well. What he was alluding to was a school for ‘educationally subnormal’ children, or special schools as they were called at the time. But my parents weren’t told that. “If they had been told they would never have agreed to it. “My parents trusted the education department officials. They thought small class sizes meant I would get better teaching, but they were basically lied to.” Confused and scared, Mr Gordon was sent to the White Spires boarding school for educationally subnormal children. It was the beginning of an extremely traumatic educational experience, one that has left him with mental scars. And it was the start of a decades-long struggle to catch up on the education and opportunities he missed out on. “That school was hell,” he recalls. Soon after joining the school he was assaulted by a much older boy in the school’s dining room. When his father
While he was there my dad quickly realised what type of school it was visited the school for the first time with his brother to complain, what he saw devastated him. “While he was there my dad quickly realised what type of school it was. My brother asked him, ‘Are you going to leave him here?’ “He didn’t want to. But it was out of his hands. My parents didn’t know at the time that they could have appealed the decision.” Further physical assaults were to follow, this time from a teacher at the school. “When I was about 12, I remember playing with another boy in the playground. The teachers at the school knew my character, I never got into fights. As I chased this boy as part of a game we were playing this teacher catches up with me, wrenches my arm and pulls me and starts beating me over the head with her fists, calling me a Black b*****d under her breath so no one would hear. This woman was quite stocky so I couldn’t get away from her. I ran home crying and told my mum.” The teacher was eventually sacked despite her claiming that Mr Gordon had been rude to her. But the incident only marked the start of his problems. He was marked out by other teachers as a troublemaker. “I was bullied by three teachers, but the most painful, and mental torture came from a staff member who I called the ‘she devil’. She bullied me for four years, until the day I left that school. It was an absolute nightmare.” As well as the racism and bullying, Mr Gordon’s education took a backward step. There was no curriculum. Children did ad-
dition and subtraction on a Friday afternoon but that was about it. For the rest of the time they played games. “We were never taught how to spell, use grammar or the English language,” he says.
OPTION
Mr Gordon was given the option to enrol in a mainstream school, so from the age of 12 he attended the Educationally Subnormal (ESN) school during the week, and a local secondary school on the weekends. Sadly, by that point, it was too late. Not only was he racially abused at his new school as well, but his education had fallen too far behind to catch up. He was returned to White Spires ESN. Exams were out of the question for all ESN pupils, so he left education unable to read or write, without a single qualification to his name. “I couldn’t fill out job application forms or even spell basic
words. The only jobs I could apply for were labouring or cleaning jobs. These are not the best jobs to do when I’m trying to manage my sickle cell. “Had I been educated, I could have gone straight to college or university.” After leaving school he discovered a love for learning and went on to earn a number of impressive qualifications, including a degree in computing. He has also written a children’s book. However, Mr Gordon says he feels like he’s spent his whole life trying to catch up on his education, and still carries the stigma of the label ‘educationally subnormal’. He is one of many Black people wrongly classified as educationally subnormal in the 1960s and ‘70s, a subject that was dramatised in one of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films. They are now set to launch legal action against the Government.
The former pupils have banded together to demand a formal apology and compensation for their lives being ruined. Members of the group say they have struggled with a lack of self-worth and confidence. Last month, the eight survivors told MPs about the lifelong impact of being classified as educationally subnormal. Mr Gordon told The Voice: “My life could have been
so different if I had had a proper education like the other children. “A lot of us are living lives that have been diminished. We’re not walking in our true potential. “My life has been diminished by the struggle to overcome barriers that shouldn’t have been there in the first place, barriers that were put there because of racism.” Mr Gordon disagrees with those who say he should leave the past behind. “People need to walk in my shoes before they start saying things like that. I, and others like me, are living with trauma. “The system holds us back. And then when you try to hold it accountable there’s nothing but denial.” Among those who are part of the campaign is Maisie Barrett, pictured inset above left, who grew up in Leeds. Ms Barrett says the decision to send her to an ESN school ruined her life chances.
