Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

[King Ragnar]

A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English.

Codie Stott's family claim she was forced to spend three-and-a-half hours in a police cell after she was reported by her teachers.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...ils/article.do

This just makes me laugh alot.

[Duke of Gloucester]

Wanting to speak English in England is Racist!!!!!

Not what the story was about.

Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

Not what the story was about either.

A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English.

Misleading. Read the article closely and you find this:

School insiders acknowledge that at least three of the students Codie refused to sit with had recently arrived in this country and spoke little English.

But they say her comments afterwards raised further concerns, for example allegedly referring to the students as "blacks" - something she denied yesterday.

so that is the issue

However:

Last night Robert Whelan, deputy director of the Civitas think-tank, said: "It's obviously common sense that pupils who don't speak English cause problems for other pupils and for teachers."

"I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time, but it's a sad reflection on the school if they can't deal with it without involving the police."

"A lot of these arrests don't result in prosecutions - they aim is to frighten us into self-censorship until we watch everything we say."

In almost all schools, incidents like this would be dealt with without involving the police. Arresting the girl was a ridiculous over-reaction.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

well, They should not have did that. Why have 1 kid who speaks english be stuck in a group with kids who can't speak hardly any english? Makes no sense. It's Like Sticking a Ant in a Bee's Hive,makes no sense.Teach the Kids English first then.

[King Ragnar]

they shouldnt be allowed in a english school if they cannot speak english at all.

[Mithrandir]

they shouldnt be allowed in a english school if they cannot speak english at all.

School insiders acknowledge that at least three of the students Codie refused to sit with had recently arrived in this country and spoke little English.

And here I was under the impression students are here to learn.
Silly me.

[Scurvy]

they shouldnt be allowed in a english school if they cannot speak english at all.

where esle are they going to go - they deserve to learn like any other person

The title is misleading,

As far as i can tell the school failed to handle the situation properly, both in making the girl sit next to the non-enlgish speakers, and then by calling the police

[Mithrandir]

Title edited.

[Crazed Rabbit]

A stupid overreaction by the school.

First, to put her in a group that speaks a different language, then putting her in detention all day for what appears to be a very valid complaint, then actually calling the police and having her thrown in a cell for complaining to the teacher about it. And according to the article, they had the police throw her in the cell a week after the incident.

And why? The school claims she referred to the other students as 'blacks'. Is that a crime in England? Enough to get thrown into jail a week after she alledgedly said that? Don't the police have better things to do, like watching scooter thieves ride away and threatening to arrest owners of lawn gnomes?

And what the heck is a "section five racial public order offence"? I guess its 'Politically Correct Big Brother is Watching You'.

Crazed Rabbit

[Major Robert Dump]

Maybe she pulled a shank and tried to stab someone.

[Csargo]

Maybe she pulled a shank and tried to stab someone.

OH SNAP

[CrossLOPER]

The system at it's best. The same thing happened in the US a year or two back. A SIX YEAR OLD GIRL was arrested for being "belligerent" and not wanting to comply with teachers' requests to calm down. This is what happens when the system is built around situations where teachers are too afraid to discipline a child in fear of getting sued by parents.

Is it seriously illegal to be racist in the UK? If so, it could really ruin my "CrossLOPER International Racism Tour Spring 2007". I've been really looking forward to it.

[Scurvy]

I"CrossLOPER International Racism Tour Spring 2007". I've been really looking forward to it.

Where can i get tickets?

[CrossLOPER]

Where can i get tickets?

Sorry, sold out. You can tag along in Paris, but after that, you're on your own.

[Duke Malcolm]

Is it seriously illegal to be racist in the UK? If so, it could really ruin my "CrossLOPER International Racism Tour Spring 2007". I've been really looking forward to it.

No, though it is quite severly frowned upon. My school keeps a "Racist Book", of all native (minorities are mostly overlooked except in severe and obvious cases) pupils who seem to have racist tendencies.

I suspect this girl did something more than what she claims. As is always the case... "din't do nuffin" "It wisnae me" et al... For refusing to study with them, she might be in breach of some racial discrimination law...

[CrossLOPER]

Double post, oops.

[CrossLOPER]

No, though it is quite severly frowned upon. My school keeps a "Racist Book", of all native (minorities are mostly overlooked except in severe and obvious cases) pupils who seem to have racist tendencies.

What about non-native racists? Those exist too.

I suspect this girl did something more than what she claims. As is always the case... "din't do nuffin" "It wisnae me" et al... For refusing to study with them, she might be in breach of some racial discrimination law...

???

So there is or isn't a law? I'm not going to argue about a law that's already in place, but I don't believe that refusing to do a school project is exactly as damaging to society as, let's say, refusing service to a person because you don't like their race or ethnicity.

[Scurvy]

[QUOTE=CrossLOPER]What about non-native racists? Those exist too.


I suspect the rules would apply to non-native racists aswell

So there is or isn't a law? I'm not going to argue about a law that's already in place, but I don't believe that refusing to do a school project is not exactly as damaging to society as, let's say, refusing service to a person because you don't like their race or ethnicity.

It sounds like she did more than refuse to do a school project - ie. quite severe racial language etc.

[CrossLOPER]

It sounds like she did more than refuse to do a school project - ie. quite severe racial language etc.

Surely the school can handle some foul language without calling the police.

Hmm. Back to square one...

[Scurvy]

As far as i can tell the school failed to handle the situation properly, both in making the girl sit next to the non-enlgish speakers, and then by calling the police

[Duke Malcolm]

What about non-native racists? Those exist too.

As I said, minorities are overlooked unless it is an obvious case. I suspect this is to do with teachers trying to help them "fit in".

So there is or isn't a law? I'm not going to argue about a law that's already in place, but I don't believe that refusing to do a school project is exactly as damaging to society as, let's say, refusing service to a person because you don't like their race or ethnicity.

No

From what the girl says, it is purely because of the language issue, though I doubt a teacher would react as was described. I suspect the girl said something more, ah, racist. In this case, both of your examples may be interpreted as one in this case, depending on what actually happened. The girl may be refusing to do something with them because of their race.

If that makes sense...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

[quote=Scurvy]

What about non-native racists? Those exist too.


I suspect the rules would apply to non-native racists aswell




It sounds like she did more than refuse to do a school project - ie. quite severe racial language etc.

She called them "blacks" crude and inaccurate, hardly racist.

Children without a good grasp of English should NOT be in mainstream education until they can communicate properly. If they are immigrants then the government should provide that tuition.

[Scurvy]

She probably said more than that, i doubt even that particular (-ly bad) teacher would call the police for just that, probably that summed up the nature of the racist language

--> mainstream education does provide tuition of english, non-english speakers at my school have seperate after school stuff to teach them, english speech - this should be the same at all english state schools (i don't know if this is the case) --> it would cost the government huge amounts of money to set up specialist tuition schools when it can use existing facilities anyay.

[lancelot]

Well this is certainly funny...Even if the girl did use the term 'blacks' yadda yadda yadda, is it a now a crime to not want to sit next to/learn with certain people if you dont want to?

Im a reasonably affluent white male (and student) and I can tell you I would probably feel very uncomfortable if placed with a group of black/asian/whatever students who for the sake of simplicity I shall term into 'urban music' or whatever the hell you call it these days.

So am I now a racist? Am I a hatemonger? I hardly think so.

[Scurvy]

Im a reasonably affluent white male (and student) and I can tell you I would probably feel very uncomfortable if placed with a group of black/asian/whatever students who for the sake of simplicity I shall term into 'urban music' or whatever the hell you call it these days.

I'm from a very multi-cultural area, and am used to integrating entirely with other ethnic groups (especially at school) and i have no problems, however i can understand why others might be, the problem with the incident is that it sounded like the girl then racially abused those she was told to sit next to as opposed to asking her teachers nicely etc.

So am I now a racist? Am I a hatemonger?

No your not

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

And here I was under the impression students are here to learn.
Silly me.

Erm, I presume so also. But I think, stick them in a school that they can learn english. I won't like it if a Bunch of Spanish Kids came into my Onlnie class,not knowing how to speak a cent of english. make them Learn in a school BEFORE they come to the US or England, or at least before you send them to a English-Speaking School

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Maybe if she'd said "I don't want to work with you ******** n******** because you can't ******* be bothered to speak english" to their face she should get detention. But this is just wacky.

[BDC]

Heh, someone somewhere screwed up badly here.

It's really funny. Of course, were she intelligent, she'd have let her group-mates lead the presentation...

[Tribesman]

What's the betting that this chav just threw a hissy fit because she couldn't sit with her mates as she was absent when they were split into study groups .
Her poor old mother got a bit upset , so after stewing for a while she got the bright idea to ring the Daily Mail .

[rory_20_uk]

OK. I'm called "white", or "Caucasian"

How is this not crude and inaccurate? My skin isn't white, and I've never been to the Caucuses.

So, yes they might not be black in terms of the colour palette. What then? African? Afro-Caribbean (you try calling one that - Caribbeans hate Africans). They might be English.

A friend of mine was trying to describe which of her friends to me, who'd I'd only met once. We went through height, job, where it was in the party etc etc. And she was shocked when I asked was she the black friend. All the others were white, so I immediately knew who she was. I guess this common sense was racist.

Discriminating against those that can't speak English?? The Guardian will have you alongside the Nazis and the BNP for that act of flagrant bias. We're all the same damnit!!!

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Erm No

They Need to Learn. having say 20 English speaking kids in one class, and having 10 kids who can only speak a few words in the same class to makes no sense. How can they learn then?