PA
A primary school in Hull has issued a statement claiming it acted "in accordance with council guidance on reporting racist incidents" after a boy of SEVEN was accused of making a racist remark to another pupil.
Little Elliott Dearlove had asked a classmate if he was "brown because he was from Africa." His mum, Hayley White was called into school to see the headteacher, Janet Adamson.
Hayley, 29, told the Sun she was asked to sign a form saying that her son had made a racist remark. The outraged mum said: "I refused to sign it. It was simply curiosity from a seven-year-old boy, nothing more."
Healthcare worker Hayley - who was read the school's zero-tolerance on racism policy during her meeting with the head - added that Elliott was "extremely distressed" by the incident: "He kept saying to me, 'I was just asking a question. I didn't mean it to be nasty.'"
Meanwhile, Nicola Allen, the mum of the other pupil has told her local newspaper that she did NOT think her son had been racially abused in the first place.
Nicola, of east Hull, told reporters from Hull and East Riding that the matter had been blown out of proportion after another newspaper broke the story.
Nicola said she thought the incident had been dealt with before Christmas and told Hull and East Riding: "Not at any point did I feel he was racist. He is seven years old. The race thing has come from the school. It is not the case that I said Elliott was racist."
She said the row began when her son returned from school last October saying another child had asked him if he was from Africa, and she had tried to "brush the comment aside" but it happened again.
Nicola told her local paper: "Eventually, I spoke to his teacher about it, I asked if they could speak to the other child and explain to him he was not African. I want to stress most vehemently at no time have I ever accused this child of racism. My point was my son was only four at the time. All I wanted to do was protect him."
She said that Hayley had apologised to her and her son and as far as she was concerned it was the end of the matter, but was hurt that people thought she was behind the racism allegation.
Elliott's dad, Lee Tyler, lent his support to both mums, saying: "It is not Nicola's fault and it is not Hayley's fault. We know Nicola did not brand Elliott racist. This is not fair to Nicola and her family. She did nothing wrong."
Local MP Karl Turner said the matter had been "taken out of all proportion and common sense seems to have gone completely out of the window." He said: "I'm satisfied he was not being racist in his remarks but just inquisitive."
What do you think?
Political correctness gone mad?