School claims 7-year-old is racist for asking classmate about skin color
posted at 11:30 am on February 20, 2012 by Howard Portnoy
Young children are by nature curious. But a cautionary tale out Griffin Primary School in Hull, England, indicates they would do well to keep their questions to themselves.
The Mail Online reports that a 7-year-old at the school had the effrontery to ask another student on the playground whether his skin was “brown because he was from Africa.”
The child’s mother, Hayley White, 29, was notified that her son, Elliott Dearlove, had been involved in a “racist incident” and summoned to the school. When she arrived, she found Elliott in an agitated state. “He kept saying to me, ‘I was just asking a question. I didn’t mean it to be nasty’” she told the Mail. “He was extremely distressed by it all.”
The mother was presented with a copy of the school rules, which include a zero-tolerance policy on racism. She was told she “would have to sign a form acknowledging that my son had made a racist remark which would be submitted to the local education authority for further investigation.”
She refused, insisting that her “son is inquisitive” but not “a racist.” In the ensuing investigation, Vanessa Harvey-Samuel, head of localities and learning at Hull City Council, defended the school’s actions, stating, “There is a statutory duty to report any incident that is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.”
Karl Turner, Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East, supported that position, but added:
[H]aving spoken to Hayley, I’m satisfied that her seven-year-old son, Elliott, was not being racist in his remarks….
It seems the matter has been taken out of all proportion and common sense seems to have gone completely out of the window.
But the Mail article suggests that incidents of UK schools branding children as racist or anti-gay are hardly rare, noting:
More than 20,000 pupils aged 11 or younger were put on record for so-called hate crimes such as using the word ‘gaylord.’
Related Articles
- NYC teacher tricks 5th graders into sending Christmas cards to prison inmate
- UK Teens given birth control without parental consent
- School refuses to allow preschooler to eat ‘non-nutritious’ lunch from home
- School accuses 6-year-old of sexual assault during schoolyard game of tag
- KY mother says school abused autistic son by confining him in a bag
- School disciplines 10-year-old for gun-shaped pizza slice (Video)
- Georgia middle schoolers learn ‘positives’ of Sharia law
- NJ boy suspended from school because Muslim girl overheard him say “Taliban”
- Elementary school teacher tells second graders Santa Claus isn’t real
- GA parents incensed over 3rd-grade math problems that reference slavery
- NH school confiscates autistic 12-year-old boy’s American flag
- Zero tolerance where it does the least good
Follow me on Twitter or join me at Facebook. You can reach me at howard.portnoy@gmail.com or by posting a comment below.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
7-year-old boys kissing girls = SEXUAL HARASSMENT
7-year-old boys thinking girls have cooties = SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Jeddite on February 20, 2012 at 11:48 AM
okay if this was an actual offensive, racist remark, then yes the kid should be disciplined.
but the thing about this is, it’s not offensive!! it actually makes sense for a little kid to wonder if a brown skinned person is from africa. how is that offensive? actually, whoever says this is offensive in some way is the racist. if the black kid IS from africa, what’s wrong with that? is that a bad thing? whether the kid is or is not from africa, neither is a bad thing. the “racist” kid was simply wondering where the black kid was from. it doesn’t make sense to say it’s racism and act like it’s offensive. this is so annoying, political correctness is insane. if you go to a public school, you always have to watch out for the speech police on your back.
Sachiko on February 20, 2012 at 11:55 AM
UK a shadow of it’s former self. Sad.
jeanie on February 20, 2012 at 12:33 PM
A 7 year old asking a question is now racist??? Those people are completely off the deep end.
And we’re also heading full speed toward this same kind of PC he!!!!
dentarthurdent on February 20, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Eventually they will get sick of this PC crap, but they won’t fix it …have to wonder if it’s just setting the table to welcome Sharia Law.
batterup on February 20, 2012 at 1:32 PM
Anything that anyone wants to claim to be offended by, even those who are not actually involved, can file a claim for a hate crime in Britain.
It really must be hell being afraid of being labeled as having committed a hate crime by your fellow countrymen for anything and everything.
I wonder what the government does with that list of 20,000 kids who have “committed hate crimes”?? How long will that follow them? How will that affect their standing in society???
KMC1 on February 20, 2012 at 2:33 PM
Good heavens – I hate to think what this school would have done to the kid who came up to us and asked us, “What’s wrong with her face?” (our youngest daughter has Down syndrome)
We didn’t get upset – this was a YOUNG girl, who was asking a perfectly legitimate question. We explained it to her (and her totally mortified mom).
We saw it as an opportunity, and we would hate to think that a child’s natural curiousity would be stifled in the name of political correctness.
Would that the school administrators were like that – this poor little kid!
TeresainFortWorth on February 20, 2012 at 3:47 PM
Luxury hotel chain to be sued in 3..2…
CJ on February 20, 2012 at 5:57 PM
When my son was in 8th grade and in an advanced literature class, he did a “bottle art” project on the person he read about: Malcolm X. Bottle art are 2 liter soda containers and are decorated to portray the person whose autobiography/biography the students had read.
The orchestra teacher (African-American) took my child’s bottle art down because Malcolm X’s “lips were too big”. The literature teacher was furious and apologized to us (the parents), my child and allegedly took the orchestra teacher to task.
What did this teach my child?
Certainly not tolerance or freedom of expression. He was not anxious to learn about this culture after that experience.
How did the orchestra teacher KNOW if my son was racist? He didn’t KNOW my child. The literature teacher did. She told me my son would never do/say anything to hurt anyone’s feeling, regardless of skin color. For goodness sakes, IT WAS 8TH GRADE BOTTLE ART. The lit teacher said “you should have seen how bad Tony LaRussa looked”. Where were the Italian-American teachers snatching LaRussa from the line-up?
We are not doing children any favors by this alleged racial remarks. Talk about stoking the racial divide.
manateespirit on February 20, 2012 at 6:10 PM
So what happens if someone’s first name is Gaylord?
One day children will be reading history books about how the fall of the UK made the fall of Rome look like a walk in the park..
Spliff Menendez on February 20, 2012 at 8:00 PM
Instead of hordes of uneducated barbarians invading from central Europe they will talk about the collapse of education leading to hordes of uneducated barbarians invading from public schools. Followed by 1000 years of Dark Ages where inquiry is stifled because of political correctness. It will end when someone is allowed to say that we should look at actual outcomes and not just ideology.
pedestrian on February 21, 2012 at 12:26 AM
Think citizens in Britain have any rights?
Think this Eurozone loving President will leave us with any?
Speakup on February 21, 2012 at 1:08 AM
The thought police are here and working to stop you from daring to question anything. The food police are their BFF’s.
Scary world we live in. At some point we’re going to have to stand up or bow down.
samazf on February 21, 2012 at 10:07 AM
Coloring books = racism, crayons = racism, using the word color = racism, saying racism = racism, this article = racism.
Smedley on February 21, 2012 at 10:40 AM
We’ve lost our damn minds. When I was around that age I came home from school and told my mom about the girl in my class that was so pretty because she was brown. My ex asked a woman on the bus if her skin was made of chocolate. The woman laughed. And this was the mid-80s! How far we’ve gone off the deep end in just 25 years.
sobincorporated on February 21, 2012 at 12:45 PM
My daughter somehow managed to lose one of her shoes in a restaraunt when she was four. It turned up under the table next to ours and I asked the black couple sitting there if I could please get the shoe. The woman bent down and picked it up for me. My daughter came over. She asked the lady “Did you know you’re brown?” I was mortified, and held my breath for a second, not knowing what to say. The couple burst out laughing and the woman gave my daughter a hug. She said something like “Yes honey I did”. I was so relieved, and so glad that couple did not choose to take offense. Now I’m also glad we weren’t in England at the time! My four year old would probably be doing hard time.
Night Owl on February 21, 2012 at 1:36 PM
My daughters are of the few white kids in their classes. They say brown skin all the time. Man.
tomas on February 21, 2012 at 7:01 PM
I wonder how many of the kids had visited Orlando and while there were trucked over to the Gaylord Palms hotel which features a wonderful buffet.
I wonder if any had visited Opryland run by Gaylord Hotels.
I wonder if any had visited the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium at Univ of OK.
The British are falling over their own feet with this runaway political correctness manure.
{+_+}
herself on February 22, 2012 at 4:17 AM