Kizu Stanford, a 26 year white man, has lost his job with Lloyds Bank as a direct result of defending a 16-year-old BAME girl from a violent, racist attack on a bus. 

Mr Stanford was a passenger on a bus when two other passengers (the aggressors) became verbally abusive towards two Eastern European passengers who were not wearing face masks. Racist comments were made by the aggressors to the two passengers. A 16-year-old BAME girl intervened and stood up for the European passengers.

The two aggressors became verbally, racially abusive towards the young girl. They then moved to get off the bus but, as they did so, one of them (a middle-aged man) kicked the 16-year-old girl, seemingly in the chest.

At that point, Mr Stanford (who was a passenger) stood up, wrestled the aggressor to the floor and after a fracas ejected him from the bus.

At the time of the incident Mr Stanford was a Lloyds Bank employee. He was wearing his Lloyds Bank uniform, a grey suit, but he wasn’t clearly identifiable as a Lloyds Bank employee.

Mr Stanford related his account of the incident to two of his colleagues, one of whom reported Mr Stanford to Lloyds Bank’s management. Instead of praising Mr Stanford for intervening to protect a member of the public, a child, against a nasty racist attack, Lloyds Bank decided to dismiss Mr Stanford on the grounds of Gross Misconduct following a superficial assessment of his case. No reasonable employer would have dismissed him.

It is important to note that the Police scrutinised Kizu Stanford’s actions in detail and took no action against him whatsoever. In fact, he is assisting them in the case against the attacker. If the Police weren’t worried, why should Lloyds Bank be concerned enough to dismiss him? If Lloyds Bank is concerned about its public image, it should be defending and protecting Kizu, not vilifying him.

His employment prospects have been severely damaged as a result of Lloyds’ unjustified decision.

Kizu Says: "As soon as I saw the man kick the young girl I knew I had to act, but I didn’t for one second think that my actions would lead to me losing my job. The attacker was bullying a defenceless young girl and I did what I thought was the right thing to protect her. I don’t regret it at all, but I do regret the fact that Lloyds Bank have chosen to sack me. I’m now out of a job at a really difficult time. I don’t think what the Bank has done is fair at all."

Kizu's Trade Union, BTU says: “It’s entirely unjustified for Lloyds Bank to dismiss a loyal member of staff simply because he acted to protect a 16-year-old BAME girl from a violent, racist attack. Lloyds Bank should do the right thing and reinstate Kizu Stanford now.”

Thank you for supporting this petition to help Kizu get his job back.

#ReinstateKizu