Lancashire Boy Living in "Terrorist" House

[OurBlanche]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-35354061

I am stuck between laughing at the fairly obvious error, "I live in a terrorist terraced house"

and being shocked that a 10 year old hears the word terrorist so often he can make this error.

Maybe I am most shocked that the school had to report this, that common sense was bypassed, that the law demands this.

Actually, having heard this a few moments ago, I am not really sure what / how I feel about this, other than shocked and bemused!

[Justanotherlurker]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/12132054/Organised-campaign-to-hobble-anti-terror-fight.html?sf20042275=1

Investigations by the Telegraph reveal that several widely reported recent stories about Prevent are false or exaggerated – and many of the supposedly “ordinary Muslim” victims are in fact activists in the campaign, known as Prevent Watch. The stories include a claim which became a cause célèbre for Prevent’s opponents – that a Muslim schoolboy from London was “interrogated like a criminal” for using the phrase “ecoterrorism” in class. The boy’s mother, Ifhat Smith, who took the story to the media, presented herself as a traumatised ordinary Londoner. She is in fact an activist in the Prevent Watch campaign and a key figure in the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which believes in replacing secular democratic government with Islamic government.

Prevent Watch heavily promoted a BBC story about a Muslim boy in Accrington, Lancashire, whose family was supposedly visited by police under Prevent after he wrote at school that he lived in a “terrorist house,” a misspelling of terraced house. Police said the visit had nothing to do with Prevent, terrorism, or the spelling mistake and was, in fact, carried out because the child also alleged that he was the victim of a violent assault. Clive Grunshaw, the Lancashire police and crime commissioner, has complained to the BBC about the story.

[OurBlanche]

Crikey! That told me!

[Kreacherelf]

So a few months ago the parents of the 3 young girls who ran off to Syria blamed the police and demanded an apology....

Now, the police are looking into every case and having to apologize again!

They can't win!

[Justanotherlurker]

Excuse the wrong formatting for this forum.

[Justanotherlurker]

sorry been dealing with a very sick DS,
Of course I read the article, I was supplying my own synopsis of the article, I may have emphasised history, but the trend in your op and some of thread was that they just jumped on some poor kid because they was Muslim.

Even with the new anti radicalisation protocols, someone writing 'terrorist' house wouldn't warrant a school to enforce procedure and I would wager that a police visit isn't required on a first offence.

We are not that kind of police state (yet) and we will never know the full reasons behind this, but with the police report and basic reasoning ~~we~~ I am willing to deduce that the BBC where wrong to report it on the angle they initially did and I can say the same of you as well.

[sidneypie]

pbs.twimg.com/media/CZO4VYqXEAAULCX.jpg
If you look carefully at answer no 1: it says ' I hate it when my uncle hits me' Not 'beats'
Now at the risk of being accused of being pedantic, I would say there is a great deal of difference between 'hitting' and 'beating'.
There is obviously a lot more to this story than meets the eye. I understand the local MP is taking up the case on behalf of the family.
This is, unfortunately, what happens when teachers are put in the position that the Prevent strategy demands. You will get many cases of better 'safe than sorry' which of course can be a good thing, but only if common sense prevails.

[OurBlanche]

Thanks! Every day is a learning day

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

Yeah well I think it's used differently depending on the context. So if someone posts a long post with no paragraphs you might put tl:dr
But if you post something It know is long you might put a synopsis at the end with tl:dr

[OurBlanche]

Oh! T'internet gave me To Long; Didn't Read.

And that particular synopsis was inaccurate anyway

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

Tl:dr doesn't mean they didn't read it - it means if you don't want to read it all here is a synopsis.

[GruntledOne]

Tampon Lady, the point is that he doesn't live with his uncle and the reference to beating appears to be something he attributed to a fictional character and not something he claimed actually happened to him. But I'm sure James O'Brien enjoyed stirring things by economising with the facts.

[LittleMamaJama]

It's quite a sad state of affairs. I know a family who are now living as 'closet' muslims.

[Tamponlady]

James o Brian

Said the boy had also mentioned his uncle beats him ect

[OurBlanche]

I've just worked out what TL;DR means.

!!! How can you be sure of what it does/does not say if you didn't read it?

Especially as some of what it says disagrees with your post - e.g. the BBC didn't say that the family were investigated as potential terrorists!

[GruntledOne]

The report doesn't say there was a history of troubling content: it says "The police visit took place because of other worrying issues in the boy’s school work". Interestingly, the direct quote from the police linked to above says The facts are that a young person disclosed a worrying issue in his school work – not just that he lived in a “terrorist house” – and this was reported through the appropriate channels and subsequently a visit was undertaken by a neighbourhood police officer and a social worker.

So it seems to me that they visited because of (a) the "terrorist house" quote and the reference to an uncle beating him. However, as has been pointed out, he seems to be writing in the character of a fictional boy rather than himself, which is borne out by the fact that the police were happy after their visit. It does all look quite heavy-handed - I wonder whether the teacher spoke to him first to check what he meant? It also looks as if the criticism of the BBC on here isn't warranted.

[Justanotherlurker]

To go with the police report I posted last night


www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/21/lancashire-police-criticise-bbc-over-terrorist-house-story

Tl;dr

Wasn't just the "terrorist house" incident that led to boy being investigated, but a history of troubling content in his work. Also the boy and his family were not investigated as a risk for terrorism. Police allege that the BBC left out key details in the article and exaggerated the seriousness of the incident, damaging community relations

[VertigoNun]

Teachers and police terrorising children. What a profession to be a jobsworth in.

[OurBlanche]

The police, and another poster, said it was the 'beatings' that formed part of the other factors... they were also part of the story he wrote, it seems.

The family certainly seem to be incensed. I doubt we'll ever know the full ins and outs, but it does seem that there are some very odd decisions being forced with the new legislation.

[NewLife4Me]

On our local news last night it stated that the school reported because there were other issues that made them decide on this route.
They obviously didn't state what, but it wasn't the only factor.

I do think it's sad though that teachers are being pressurised into making the call. It's sad we live in such a world.

[OurBlanche]

The Beeb is definitely not going quietly... they are ramping it up and showing more instances of unintended consequences of Prevent.

To be fair, they did explain why the new laws came in, just asked the obvious questions about the reality of the way the law is actually working.

The Muslim boy used the word 'ecoterrorist' in a French class, in context, in French, in a conversation that was specifically about people who use violence to save the planet.

He had learned the term in a previous debating society class.

I am with him... he wondered what was going on when he was dragged out of a French class and asked about ISIS!

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/22/school-questioned-muslim-pupil-about-isis-after-discussion-on-eco-activism

Have we gone mad, as a society? We know radicalism occurs, so to stop it we force teachers to be professionally suspicious of their muslim students, to report such conversations for fear of being punished? Pshaw!

I pity any teacher nowadays. I am so glad I got out before all of this new madness.

[wanderings]

Because teachers are forced out of their jobs for being reasonable and applying common sense, nowadays.

And the pen-pushing privileged politicians who write teachers' rule books don't live on the same planet as everyone else.

[OurBlanche]

No... it seems that the truth lies between the two.

www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/14216694.Accrington_schoolboy_quizzed_by_police_after_writing_he_lived_in__terrorist_house__rather_than__terraced_house_/

The Lancashire Telegraph has published the homework in question. The boy was writing about a fictional character, Cheeky Charlie and the school reported it as he 'disclosed' that he was being beaten by his uncle.

Or was it the fictional Charlie that was being beaten by his fictional uncle?

This, it seems, is just one of a number of incidents coming from the new 'Prevent' legislation that holds teachers criminally responsible for not reporting any issues.

Having read more about it I am even more bemused!

[BarbarianMum]

Not surprised that a child hears the word "terrorist" all the time - it's on the news every day. Mine hear it a lot because we have the radio on at breakfast and talk about stuff that's on (esp stuff that worries them like terrorism).

It was reported on R4 this morning that a 10 year child was interviewed for using the word "ecoterrorist" (presumably in context).

[VertigoNun]

The BBC reporting is worrying.

Not just this and Cologne. I contacted them about their factually incorrect description of Tara Hudson. The response was to blame Tara Hudson for giving them the wrong information.

It seems the BBC don't check their sources and will report any old nonsense.

[AnotherEffingOrangeRevel]

I seem to remember George W Bush confusing 'tourism' and 'terrorism' fairly regularly. Hope he got investigated thoroughly.