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Sign up to our free fortnightly publication from The Independent’s Race Correspondent Nadine White
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A Black scholar who was overwhelmed up throughout an alleged racist incident in Carlisle has been been bullied at faculty since shifting to the UK three months in the past, his mother has mentioned.
In a distressing video which prompted outrage on social media, a schoolboy was seen being taunted, pushed and punched by a white boy, who ordered the sufferer to kiss his footwear.
The boy’s mother advised The Independent that the attack, which is being handled by police as a suspected hate crime, had been witnessed by the boy’s 11-year-old sister and had left them each traumatised.
She mentioned: “My son doesn’t want to go back to school. At first, he wanted us to move out of Carlisle. My son said ‘if we relocate, I’ll probably be safer but if we stay then I don’t know what’s going to happen next’.”
She added that she believes he was targeted due to his ethnicity. “I feel that my son was targered because he’s Black – I strongly feel so,” she mentioned.
“He has been receiving a lot of hate from the class; one of the boys teased my son during breaktime that day and my son didn’t see it coming that they were trying to bully him. Then the boy went home and told his older brother, who doesn’t even attend the school, about my son, then the brother came to harass him (along with the others).
“The boy who told my son to kiss his shoes doesn’t attend the school; that clearly shows it’s racism. He doesn’t know my son but had the guts to do that to him.”
Accordingly to the mother, the household not too long ago migrated to the UK from Zimbabwe. She moved to this nation in 2022 and her kids, each born in Zimbabwe, joined her in December.
“For them to have just moved here and come across this? It’s not good,” she mentioned.
After the incident, which came about on Friday close to St John Henry Newman Catholic School, Cumbria police mentioned it was conscious of “concerns in the community”.
The power urged individuals not to share the video.
The mother, who requested not to be named, mentioned the police and faculty seem to be taking the matter critically. The faculty is arranging for some research packs to be given to the kid and counselling periods for him have additionally been mentioned.
“From the way they’re communicating with me, they are taking the matter seriously but we will see what happens as time progresses,” the mum continued.
In the clip, the schoolboy is seen being repeatedly harassed. He suffers a number of blows earlier than being pressured to kiss the white teenager’s footwear.
In one other clip purportedly filmed after the incident, the white teenager might be seen following the vicimt up the road and punching him twice earlier than onlookers intervene.
Police have arrested 4 youngsters, all from Carlisle.
One of the youngsters was arrested on suspicion of racially-aggravated precise bodily hurt whereas the opposite three have been arrested on suspicion of abetting racially-aggravated precise bodily hurt.
“These are abhorrent images circulating online that have caused shock and concern in both the community and among officers here at Cumbria Police,” mentioned Superintendent Sarah Jones in a press release.
She added: “We can reassure the community this is an incident we are taking very seriously – and we have made four arrests.
“Our officers have worked through the night and continue to carry out investigations today.”
Police shall be rising patrols in Carlisle in response to considerations from the group.
The Zimbabwe Embassy is supporting the household.
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