The tragedy of her should have sparked resistance against the brutal bullying refugee children face at school but says Samuel Brooksworth not much has changed

SHUKRI YAHYA Abdi – let’s not forget her name. A shy, kind and loving young girl whom in 2018 moved from Somalia to the UK. However, whilst attending school in Bury, Greater Manchester, was continuously ridiculed and bullied. This bullying led to her death. 

With the protest of George Floyd’s death coming into its 3^rd week, the world of exposing injustice has gained momentum in the face of social media support– this now includes Shukri Abdi’s case. 

Failed

This is a tale of a young girl who left Somalia with her family in search of a better life, to only be failed in the hands of a country that was meant to offer her hope and support. Neither of which was achieved.

Now, this story is close to home, so close that my twin brother and I attended a high school that was a 10 minute drive away from the high school Shukri attended. 

Growing up in Bury, we too were subjected to bullying throughout our time at school.

“Catch that coloured lad!” was the shout I would hear every football game I played growing up. 

Seeing opposing coaches red in the face with rage as I, a young black boy ran rings around his team’s defence. 

That was until the day a young man from an opposing team flew in and snapped my leg in half whilst the ball was in the air. 

“Got him” he smiled as his teammates congratulated him. I lay there still, looking down at my broken leg. The referee then shouted “play on.”

Another incident I vividly remember was the day kids from our year had made phone calls asking for young adults in their late teens and early twenties to physically assault Andrew and I after school. 

The crowd outside the school became so big and violently angry that Andrew and I were made to wait in the head teacher’s office for police to arrive and escort us home.

Prejudices

I never understood why the kids in my school had such strong racial prejudices and senseless anger at such young ages. 

These series of events took place in Bury 18 years ago and having spoken to a former friend of Shukri, she sadly stated “nothing has changed with schools in Bury”. 

A thread on Twitter by this former friend of Shukri which has now amassed over 40,000 retweets and likes, highlighted how a group of girls would often follow Shukri and her mother home after school. Whilst shouting racial abuse, they would then throw stones and run away. 

Complaints

Shukri’s mother made numerous complaints to the school however, nothing was done. 

This thread then goes on to give details of the event that took place the day Shukri died.

It expresses how a group of students supposedly approached Shukri after school and persuaded her to come with them as they pretended to be her friends. 

It was reported that a group of girls had planned to push Shukri into a river as a way of scaring her. The thread then details how Shukri was held over the water before eventually being let go off, resulting in her death caused by drowning. 

The girl allegedly responsible for pushing Shukri apparently laughed as she watched her struggle for life. The group then ran off and came back hours later to report she fell in. 

Shockwaves

Shukri’s death sent shockwaves through my mind. If it hadn’t been for the police escorting me home, I can’t help but think – that could have been me. 

DI Andrew Naismith said: “This is an incredibly tragic incident in which a young girl has lost her life, and my thoughts are with her family at this devastating time.

We have a team of detectives working on this, but there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances at this time.”

He added that specially trained officers were supporting the child’s family.

Bullying is a big problem in schools across the country with a record number of children being excluded for racist bullying, a Guardian analysis has found. This has prompted calls for an urgent government intervention to tackle bigotry and prejudice in schools across Britain. 

In 2018, 4,590 cases of racial abuse among school students were deemed serious enough to warrant fixed or permanent exclusion, up from 4,085 in the previous year.

Toxic rhetoric

Lola Okolosie, an English teacher said the figures were not surprising “given that in the last decade we have had such toxic rhetoric surrounding immigration and migrants”.

She added: “Young people are merely reflecting the prevailing climate… Schools need to not pretend the problem does not exist. Senior leadership teams themselves need to consider their own unconscious biases as they are often all white teams with a very basic understanding of what constitutes racism. 

“Ultimately though, this is not an issue that can be fixed by schools when the larger cultural discourse is one which seems immigrants as a burden.”

A recent incident of racial bullying in North Yorkshire has seen two teenagers arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated offences after a number of videos circulated on social media showing a black boy being bullied.

The videos, which have been viewed more than 1.5m times on Twitter, show a white teenage boy and a white teenage girl repeatedly shouting at a black boy to kneel and kiss their trainers.

Justice

Unlike many incidents that have sought justice through footage, unfortunately for Shukri, there is no video evidence of her death.  

With Shukri’s change.org petition now surpassing 400,000 signatures and rapidly growing, people want answers. Shukri’s voice was not heard, and her family dismissed like many others in the midst of racial bullying and discrimination.

But with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, voices are now growing louder for justice to be served.

Source: The Voice