UK school condemns attack on Sikh student, denies it was racially motivated

London, July 5

A school in the UK has condemned a video, which was earlier circulated on the social media, showing a Sikh boy being pushed, grabbed, and kicked by another boy.

The boys were students of Colton Hills Community School in Goldthorn Park, Wolverhampton.

Without mentioning the age and name of the boys, the school described it as a standalone, and not "racially motivated", incident that has been "seriously" dealt with.

"Sikh children continue to be safe in our school," a statement from S. Blower, acting head teacher of Colton Hills Community School, said on Tuesday.

"We are publishing this statement to respond to an incident which took place on Friday (June 30) and has been shared on social media, to assure all in our community that it has been dealt with seriously."

The school said that the incident, which did not happen on school grounds, was reported to them by the parents of the Sikh boy. The parents said their ward was followed and then assaulted by a student from the same school.

"The incident was reported to senior staff and immediate action was taken against the student who was the instigator in the incident. The nature of this will remain confidential, but the school has taken the strongest action as it would in any incident of this nature," the statement read, adding that the boy is safe and is attending the school.

The school authorities said they were also made aware of the posts circulating on social media regarding the incident, and an action on that has been taken. However, they denied that bullying or racism was involved, and this was "confirmed" by the Sikh boy.

"There was no evidence of bullying, as this was a standalone incident and not part of an ongoing issue. This was confirmed by the Sikh boy involved. Finally, there was no evidence of anything racially motivated in the incident, which would have been taken incredibly seriously and which has no place in our school. Again, this was confirmed by the victim to our staff," the school statement said.

According to the 2021 UK census, British Sikhs number over 520,000 people and account for 0.88 per cent of England and Wales population, forming the country's fourth-largest religious group.

--IANS