Reform councillor who mocked teacher’s “yellow hair” as she held Zimbabwe flag issues grovelling apology
The woman was carrying out storytelling sessions for children
A Reform councillor who mocked a teacher’s “yellow hair” while she was holding a Zimbabwe flag during a children’s learning session has issued a grovelling apology.
Councillor Joe Standen, who represents Paulsgrove, sparked fury when he delivered a ridiculing Facebook post on a story by The News.
Cllr Standen took a swipe against Nathalie Millyard teaching children during a storytelling session for young people “celebrating local heroes and young creators”. Subsequent planned sessions have now been scrapped until further notice following the fallout.
The events were being run by Pamodzi Creatives and were aimed at showing children the power of words and the importance of connecting communities.
Cllr Standen’s post had the polar opposite effect of unifying the community when he wrote: “Let’s not let geography get in the way of a good bit of diversity.
“A woman with yellow hair, holding up a Zimbabwe flag, celebrating local heroes in Portsmouth? Have you ever seen such nonsense in all your life?
“Is it me or is the country just going completely mental in front of our very eyes?”
The post sparked angry responses with Cllr Standen coming in for heavy criticism. One person posted: “Unbelievable that your local councillor Joe Standen has attacked the teacher in this picture for her hair colour and showing children a flag as part of a story.”
Another sarcastically wrote: “Children reading and writing stories about people and places around the world. Shock horror.”
A third reader added: “Picking on the colour of her hair though. I wondered if someone has been watching Mean Girls too often.”
Now Cllr Standen has apologised for his comments and told The News he had “reached out to Nathalie because I would like the opportunity to apologise to her properly, face to face”, with him revealing “I owe her that rather than simply sending an email or message”.
Explaining his intention behind the remarks on the social media comment, the controversial councillor said: “The point I was trying to make was about the photograph accompanying a story, and children learning about local Portsmouth heroes and that Portsmouth has an extraordinary history and I felt the photograph, featuring a Zimbabwean flag, seemed an unusual choice to illustrate a story specifically about Portsmouth’s local heroes.
“However, I expressed that point badly. In particular, referring to Nathalie’s hair colour was completely unnecessary and made what I intended as a criticism of the presentation of the story into something that understandably felt like a personal attack on her. I am genuinely sorry for that.
“My criticism was never intended to suggest that Zimbabwean or African history should not be taught, nor was it intended as an attack on Nathalie personally or the work she does with children. I recognise that my words caused offence and upset regardless of what I intended.”
He added: “As the father of two daughters, I am particularly disappointed in myself for commenting on a woman’s appearance when it had absolutely no relevance to the point I was trying to make.
“I have also offered to make a personal financial contribution towards providing more of the local history books used with children in these lessons.
“I am waiting to hear from Nathalie and hope she will accept my invitation to meet. In the meantime, I want to publicly apologise to her for the personal comments I made and for the upset they caused.”
Pamodzi Creatives declined to comment when approached.
A council spokesperson said they do not “generally comment on individual councillor posts unless there is a particular reason”.