A headteacher faced backlash for editing an educational document concerning a Southport killer. The change came after mental health professionals criticized the use of the word ‘sinister,’ alleging it perpetuated racial profiling of “a black boy with a knife.”
Axel Rudakubana, at 13, was placed in The Acorns School in Ormskirk, Lancashire. This move followed his expulsion from mainstream schooling due to bringing a knife to class.
Joanne Hodson, the headteacher, shared with the public inquiry examining Rudakubana’s actions that she identified him as a ‘very high risk’ from his initial day in school.
In a message to her staff, Hodson highlighted the necessity of conducting regular knife searches on Rudakubana, noting his lack of emotion and remorse, which contributed to her assessment of him as ‘very high risk.’
Subsequently, Hodson agreed to remove descriptors like ‘sinister’ and ‘cold and calculating’ from Rudakubana’s educational plan. This decision came after mental health workers accused her of racially profiling the student.
Hodson expressed that the criticism left her feeling silenced and professionally restrained.
Ms Hodson described a ‘memorable’ first meeting when she asked Rudakubana why he had taken a knife into his previous comprehensive.
‘He looked me in the eyes and said “to use it”,’ she said. ‘This is the only time in my career that a pupil has said this to me or behaved in a manner so devoid of any remorse.’
Axel Rudakubana was a ‘very high risk’ pupil, headteacher Joanne Hodson said
However later, Ms Hodson said, she agreed to remove the word ‘sinister’ and comments referring to Rudakubana as ‘cold and calculating’ from an education plan after mental health workers accused her of racially profiling ‘a black boy with a knife’
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were all murdered in the atrocity on July 29, 2024
She said she was surprised that his parents, who were also at the meeting, ‘didn’t flinch’ at that comment and simply accepted his explanation.
They believed their son was a ‘good boy’ whose bad behaviour was a consequence of him being previously bullied and his actions were ‘someone else’s fault’, Ms Hodson said.
But the teacher said she was so worried that she sent an email to all her staff saying: ‘AR (Rudakubana) was a highly unusual pupil, the most unusual I had experienced during my career.
‘At Acorns, we educate and support young people with a range of complex needs, however I’ve never come across a pupil like AR. He was incredibly difficult to read and had an unusual energy and was unpredictable.
‘There was a sinister undertone, and it was difficult to build rapport. He had no respect for authority and generally a lack of respect of other pupils and staff. He was insistent that his views alone were correct and everyone else was wrong.
‘There was never any sense of remorse or accountability for his actions. Those features are, in my view, extraordinary.’
Rudakubana was enrolled at The Acorns School, in October 2019, but within weeks his behaviour was flagged by staff as concerning.
He started looking up school shootings online, making shocking statements and threatening pupils and staff.
She said she had a ‘visceral sense of dread’ that he would ‘do something’ to one of his peers.
‘It felt like he was building up to something,’ she said. ‘I felt like something was going to happen…this kind of level of agitation and the direct challenges to staff and the way he was with the other pupils, it felt like every day it was building and building and building.
‘I was aware of that he’d taken knives into school, and I was worried that he was going to bring something to our school and do something similar at our school.’
But, in the end, Rudakubana, who is being referred to at the inquiry by his initials, attacked a pupil at his former school instead.
Rudakubana outside the Hart Space dance studio, in Southport, before he launched his attack which killed three young girls
A knife identical to the one used in the attack carried out by Rudakubana at The Hart Space, in Southport, last July
He travelled to The Range High School, in Formby, on December 5, 2019, where he attacked another student with a hockey stick. He was also found with a knife in his bag.
By then The Acorns School had already referred Rudakubana to the Government’s counter-terror programme, Prevent.
The referral was formally considered on December 13, but MI5 did not believe he met the threshold for opening a Security Service investigation because no terrorist or domestic extremist ideology was identified – they then had no further involvement.
A second Prevent referral was made by the school around a year later, on February 1, 2021, over posts Rudakubana had made about Colonel Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader, on Instagram.
Then, a third referral was made a few weeks later, on April 22, 2021, when Rudakubana had webpages open about the London Bridge attack in class. He was also discussing the IRA, MI5, and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
But each time his case wasn’t considered serious enough for further investigation and was closed.
Ms Hodson said the school did not believe it was the right place for Rudakubana from the beginning.
But even after the attack at the Range – when she hoped other agencies would step-up and help them manage the risk Rudakubana presented – she said nothing was done.
‘We were literally left holding the baby,’ Ms Hodson added.
Rudakubana was not allowed to return to The Acorns School because of the attack at The Range but, when the pandemic struck, in March 2020, no decision had been made about his future education.
He had not been to school for more than two years when he killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.
The inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, continues.
