Hijacked by hatred – social media’s vile abuse on Dunnikier school project

A story about youngsters learning about other cultures ought to have gathered a few likes, some smiley, thumbs-up emojis, and links shared to other parents. Instead it was hijacked by hate.

I have no idea why the sight of a foreign flag should trigger so many people to the extent they felt it necessary to hurl horrific abuse towards the school and the kids, while bemoaning what this country has become.

I’ll tell them what it has become - a place where casual racism is now the norm, where online abuse causes real and lasting damage, where division is used as a weapon, and we seek out someone to blame for our own rubbish lives, the mistakes we make, and the opportunities we seem too lazy to pursue.

I should be used to the online bile. Every single story I pen about a housing development - whether it’s £350,000-plus homes in Pittenweem or new affordable housing from Fife Council - meets with the same witless, woeful, wretched response; “aye, they’ll be for the migrants.”

The phrase ‘the boat people’ has been dusted down from circa 1974 and became another lazy cliche to throw into an increasingly toxic online ‘debate’ (and I use that word very, very loosely).

Dunnikier’s story was the sort that has appeared in the Press for the past 155 years; a positive feature on what is happening in our local classroom, submitted by a school which simply wanted to share its activities.

For it to get such a horrific response tells me Facebook’s algorithm must have amplified it - handing it on a place for anyone to freely abuse.

Grown adults, many of them parents themselves I suspect, went purple with rage at what they saw - they certainly didn’t look beyond the headline or picture, but then, they rarely do. People just jump from the soundbite to the comments and pile in with our own tuppence worth.

The ignorance is scary - and frightening. There is no attempt to engage in meaningful debate or constructive dialogue, simply a chance to put the boot in, with words that wound deeper than any slash from a knife.

Checking the profiles of those who posted showed they came from across the UK - I counted people from Liverpool, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Glasgow among the comments. Who knew a small primary school in Kirkcaldy had such a reach? That is, if they even existed. It was interesting to note so many had two or three followers, and many profiles were completely locked down.

Without exception they have been reported and also banned from our page. I doubt they even know or care about the latter.

The impact on the staff, pupils and parents, was very, very real. The abuse was horrible, and tainted something very positive.

I doubt those who piled on with their abuse cared. On social media platforms, there is little empathy, decency or understanding - they are now places to give someone a kicking and then move on to the next target.

How did we get to a place where a photo of a school project had 280 people frothing at the mouth and so angry their thumbs went into overdrive typing out a message of hate and division?

Just when you think social media comments can sink no further, along comes a fresh batch which lowers the bar another notch.

I wonder how they’d feel if they were on the receiving end? Maybe next time - and there will be a next time - we’ll put their comments, names and photographs on the front page and show the town exactly who they are …