“Girl irritated boy, boy pushed girl and told her to go away.” But girl is a Muslim — an “Asian” in British PC-speak — and so boy is charged with racial assault and hounded. He has been cleared, but the whole thing is a travesty from beginning to end. Who made sure these charges were brought? What is being done about them to ensure this kind of thing will not happen again? Nothing, of course.
“How can my son be racist, asks mother of Down’s boy charged after playground spat with Asian girl,” by Natasha Courtenay-Smith for the Daily Mail:
Until recently, Fiona Bauld thought her 18-year-old son Jamie had not fully grasped the gravity of the situation he found himself in.
It brought her solace that her child, who has Down’s syndrome and the mental age of a five-year-old, hadn’t fully comprehended the charges of racism and assault against him, let alone begun to contemplate the consequences.
But one night shortly after Christmas, as the family watched TV, Fiona realised to her horror that Jamie was not as oblivious as she’d hoped.
A scene featuring a prison appeared on screen, at which point Jamie said quietly: “I don’t want to go to jail, Mum. Please don’t let them take me away.” He then burst into tears.
“I rushed over, put my arms around him and told him everything was going to be fine,” says Fiona.
“All through this nightmare I’ve done my best to put on a smile and act normally around Jamie, simply to protect him from everything that was happening. But that night, as he sobbed in my arms, I wasn’t sure everything would be OK.
“My worst fear was that Jamie would be taken away somewhere that I wouldn’t be able to protect him. I said: ‘Jamie, you’re not going to prison’, but I found myself in tears, too.”
When Fiona – who lives in Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, with her husband James, 46, a telecommunications contractor, and their daughter Stephanie, 17 – uses the word “nightmare” she is making no understatement.
Hers is a situation so ridiculous it would be laughable, had the potential ramifications not been so serious.
Her story also serves as a disturbing example of how extreme political correctness can allow minor of incidents to be blown out of all proportion.
The events which have brought her such anguish in recent months begun with what was effectively a playground spat between two individuals with special needs.
It soon escalated into a seven-month criminal investigation that could have resulted in Fiona’s son being hauled before a court and left with a criminal record.
Last September, Jamie – who is 18 but cannot even tie his own shoelaces, needs help on the lavatory, mustn’t be left alone in the house and still relies on his mother to tuck him up in bed at night – had an altercation with an Asian girl of a similar age, also a pupil at the special needs department of Motherwell College in Lanarkshire, where Jamie is a student.
Put quite simply – girl irritated boy, boy pushed girl and told her to go away. Then, girl responded by telling her teacher.
The two were sent their separate ways and their parents informed about the falling out.
Given their mental ages, it was no more significant than a playground spat between two five-year-olds. That should have been the end of it.
Instead, a notice was placed in the local newspaper – it is not known by whom – asking for witnesses to a “racial assault” at the college on the day in question.
Whether this notice led to the police investigation, or whether the family of the girl contacted them directly is still not clear. Either way, just over a week later, Jamie was charged with racism and assault.
It was an insane example of overzealous political correctness; a local zero-tolerance policy on racism taken to its extremes without any common sense being applied, let alone consideration for the unusual circumstances of the individuals involved.
After months of stress and fear, the Baulds’ ordeal came to an end yesterday when, in a remarkable climbdown, the Crown Office issued a formal apology to the family for any distress caused over the past seven months.
All charges have now been dropped, but this, says Fiona, is not enough.
Not only have they encountered confusion, red tape and a lack of compassion in their dealings with the Scottish legal system, they are left fearing that Jamie will forever have a blot on his reputation as a result of being charged at all.
“Our family has been put through a terrible ordeal over nothing,” says Fiona. “It is utterly ridiculous that the authorities brought adult charges against our son, who was not only innocent, but clearly unable to comprehend why he was in trouble.
“For instance, when the police arrived to interview Jamie, he welcomed them with a big smile and a handshake. As they read him his rights, he said thank you for coming to see him, and agreed with everything they said.”…