10 years old in court for racism!

A judge who said a legal case against a 10-year-old boy over alleged racism was "political correctness gone mad" has been criticised by a teaching union.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said Judge Jonathan Finestein was "out of date" in his attitude.

The boy from Irlam, Greater Manchester, appeared at Salford Youth Court accused of racially abusing a fellow pupil.

But Judge Finestein adjourned the case, saying the boys would have got "a good clouting" in his day.

On adjourning the case until 20 April, he asked prosecutors to reconsider whether the case was in the public interest.

However Judith Elderkin, NUT National Executive member, said the judge should have taken the allegation of racism more seriously.

She added that she thought he was "out of date" with the way issues are dealt with in schools today.

The boy is accused of abusing an 11-year-old pupil in a school playground between 1 July 2005 and 30 January 2006.

He is accused of calling the pupil names including "Paki, nigger and Bin Laden".

During the preliminary hearing the court was told the boys are now friends and play football with each other.

'Reverse decision'

But Judge Finestein said he thought the decision to prosecute the youngster was "crazy" and urged the Crown Prosecution Service to reconsider its decision.

The judge said when he was at school he was repeatedly called "fat", but in those days the headmaster would have just given the children a "good clouting" and sent them on their way.

"Have we really got to the stage where we are prosecuting 10-year-old boys because of political correctness?" he said in court.

"Nobody is more against racist abuse than me but these are boys in a playground; this is nonsense.

"I think somebody should consider reversing the decision to prosecute."

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said the force took all crimes seriously and was totally opposed to any racism.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4886014.stm

Your views?

 

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give the kid a clouting, young kids in britain (where i live i may add) are turning into senseless yobs. the other day i was walking through town and a kid bumps into me, i say sorry and i get 'what the fuck are you doing you fucking dickhead'. his age, cant be more than 12. this is the age that we live in where little kids think that they are tough and try and take on the world themselves

 

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What the HELL?

Kids are insulted time and time at school. Retard, fag, your mother's a whore, that bitch is a slut, etc. Turn a blind eye to that. But if someone dares to even mention race in an insult, we must all cry out in shock!

I mean, obviously racist insults are somehow more hurtful than vanilla, regular insults!

 

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I don't apologise if anyone walks into me. Child or adult. I will make some effort to move out of the way, half enough to avoid collision. If they won't go the other half, they deserve to get trod on. If they talk back, they get advanced on again. Kids, especially, need teaching this lesson.

On the subject in hand, the court case is ridiculous. Kids need to learn right from wrong, and it sounds like the kid now has, and is friendly with the kid he used to insult. Where do you draw the line? Kids need time to learn social graces, we can't start prosecuting them because they slip up a few times. He's 10 years old FFS.

 

Actually they might be ... how often has calling someone fat led to a mob's lynching fat people?

Still, doesn't seem like a court case should be necessary...

 

he is 10, he probably diddnt realize what nigger ment, also who owuld he here the word from?

the answer( msotl iklly) is the parents.

I was 12 when i learned the word nigger, and havent ever used it unless is context like this.

I was 9 when i learned swere words.

it was 2 weeks ago i learend the word beaner ( mexcian i bleive)

The answer to this is simple, teach kids at a young age swere words and racial words, and have the teachers explain to the kids why the words are bad, and why they shouldnt be used.

If i learned about swere words and stuff in 1st,or 2nd grade forom a teacher, instead of kids hwo heard it form there older siblings, i probably owulnt use them as much as i did.

What do you guys htink about teaching kids about swere words and why there bad at a young age?

words like "nigger" are only as bad as peopel amke it out to be, if people owuldl ook theo ther way at kids, and adults, whenever they (we) swere we would( the majority anyway) would stop, i say it alot, andn ot jsut for the "shockaffect" its part of my everyday lifestyle. But when i was younder i owuld get beat for it, causieng it to be liek the forbidden fruit. if no one owuld have siad anyhting i proably wouldnt use it much anymore.

So in an ut shell
1- its used because its bad, shock value
and2- teach kids hwy there bad nad hwat they are to have htme not use them

This owuld not have wnet to court this way, but also itsp ossible htis way he wouldnt have used it.

Its good that kids can look past those words and still play footbal ltogether. Older kids, and adults they wouldnt never talk or ECVER become firneds after that. shows howm uch odler kids can soemtiems be from teens and adults...... huh?

 

I hear the word nigger all the time and it's said by black's in rap songs.

 

this court case is a joke - "."

edit- i don't mean it isn't for real just in case that isn't clear.

 

when i was in primary school, if we called another kid names we got sent to the principal, not court.

 

Court is going waaaaay to far. Principle would be fine. Have it explained why he can't use language like that.

But kids say horrible things to each other. When I was 10, fag, bitch, dyke, slut etc. were all very common. I was more into classist insults ("Your parents are supported by the taxes my parents pay") kind of thing, but there you go...

 

Zephyr:

I fail to see how that is relevant.

I'd argue that being called 'fat' can be far more offensive and upsetting than being called a 'nigger'. How many girls have turned anorexic because vicious girls in high school teased them about their weight?

 

It was just the same, any number of years ago. Kids like that should be shot... I seriously doubt anyone who speaks like that to adults at the age of 12 can turn out to be a productive member of society.

oh yeah... and the court case is a joke. Kids calling each other names - they don't know the meaning of, will always happen. Over zealous left wing idiots... will always be around also. How unfortuntate.

- Shifty Russian

 

Jax, kids here in the U. S. are being educated into buffoons and incompetents, too.

I think the problem is

who is far more concerned with political correctness and 'sensitivity' than she is with education.

School authorities need to be watching for systemic bullying and abuse; not temper tamtrums. Until they figure out the difference, they shouldn't be school authorities. We, the people need to get rid of the incompetents administering the education system. Education is far too important to leave to that lot of dimbulbs.

 

exactly kidsl ike me are bieng turnedi nto idiots, loo kat my typing1

wait am inite.... HEY archie that was mean!!!!

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hmm.. kinda weird that the union is called NUT..

too bad kids aren't caned out of their senses in the West.

 

*falls out of chair laughing hysterically*
The universe is a masterpiece!!!!

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riku, please, PLEASE tell me you're not an instructor or 'administrator'.

Please?

 

ok, so I'm Muslim and Pakistani and I'm against insulting my people, but I have to admit this is kind of extreme. Maybe we should just give the kid one day detention and forget about it, he is only ten years old.

Peace.

 

Free speech permits all ideas, even those that offend some censorous organizations. Let children speak their minds so we can have honest discourse instead of scripted parroting.

 

This is true. However, some ideas are better than others. Science is not always very equal on different viewpoints.

Free speech in this country, lamentably, includes the right to hate speech as well which is well-defined by a large majority.

What is your definition of 'parroting' ? Parroting tolerance for others? Parroting against hate speech? Or parroting hate speech itself?

And how would you suppose, if everyone were to adopt your ideas one-for-one, that it wouldn't be considered 'parroting' as well? I'm sure you wouldn't want that.