Race row 'V&A museum staff racially profiled our students'

PARENTS and staff at a Bristol school have called for a boycott of a prestigious London museum after allegations that museum staff racially profiled a group of students on a school trip and demanded they be searched.

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

The staff from City Academy in Easton are understood to have cut short the visit and since then the headteacher has met with management at the Victoria and Albert Museum to discuss what happened.

One member of staff, who is the Bristol rep of the main teaching union the NEU, has set up a petition demanding an apology from the V&A and called for a boycott of the museum.

The V&A said it was taking 'feedback of this nature seriously' and a review is underway of what happened so the museum staff can take 'opportunities for any improvements.

Parents of the young people on the Year 10 school to London have spoken of their concerns, saying their children returned 'angry' after the experience. There is no suggestion the students were anything other than well-behaved during their visit to the V&A, but a number of pupils alerted their teachers when they realised they were being followed around the museum.

The trip involved all Year 10 students studying creative subjects like art and photography, and took in other venues after the V&A including Hyde Park and the Serpentine Gallery.