The Conversation (0)
Greg Evans
Feb 24, 2021
Parents have come to the defence of a junior school headteacher who was criticised and mocked by Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain for having tattoos.
On Tuesday, Morgan hit out at Lee Hill, the headteacher of Howden Junior School in East Yorkshire, who has chosen to remove historical figures like Sir Walter Raleigh, Admiral Nelson and Francis Drake, who are synonymous with Britain's colonial past, from the school’s curriculum.
The students will instead learn about contemporary figures such as Greta Thunberg, Marcus Rashford, Malala Yousafzai and Amanda Gorman.
Morgan is predictably not a fan of the decision by Hill who he labelled “ultra woke” and accused him of “cancelling” the aforementioned historical figures as well as saying that he was “covered in Beckham-style tattoos” and that he comes from an “era where appearance matters.”
The presenter added, “Next it’ll be Winston Churchill with this guy, old tattoo boy, he’ll be cancelling Churchill. He’ll be cancelling everybody for being despicable, rather than teaching children about our history.”
However, there has been a major pushback back on Morgan’s comments by the parent’s of the children who go to Hill’s school. According to Hull Live, parents have been defending Hill on Facebook and praising him for attempting to improve the school.
One parent wrote, “I can only go on my own personal experience of my son in his school and quite honestly I can stand for the vast majority of parents and the community that, as a headteacher, he is outstanding.
“He turned around my son’s whole attitude and school life, he has climbed over all the Covid hurdles and still put the children’s best interests at heart in every way he possibly could.”
A woman who claimed her sister went to the school also praised the job that Hill has been doing and called Morgan’s comment’s “out of order.” She said, “It’s bang out of order to judge someone on their tattoos, does that affect his teaching ability? I don’t think it does.”
A third parent added, “Mr Hill has been an incredible headteacher through this pandemic. He has hosted lots of events at the school to give the children something to look forward to. He made Christmas magical with an inflatable Santa and snowball fighting.
“He has ensured no child goes hungry and has loaned out laptops so all children can access home learning.”
Morgan’s outburst has continued through to Wednesday morning when he claimed on Good Morning Britain that he has a problem with people ‘covered in tattoos’ because of his ‘old fashioned values’ but co-host Susanna Reid told him to stop casting aspersions.
Regardless of Morgan’s thought’s Mr Hill has been commended for his work by the local community and nominated for the ‘key worker of the year’ in the Hull Live Heart of East Yorkshire Awards 2021.