UK Police Deny Misspelling Led To Investigation, Say It Was Other Schoolwork Instead
from the still-a-problem dept
We had just relayed a story via the BBC about an elementary school kid in the UK earning a visit to his home from the authorities after writing in an English assignment that he lived in a "terrorist house", when he reportedly was trying to say he lived in a "terraced house." The crux of this story was that the UK's Anti-Terrorism law, which requires that school teachers act as surveillance agents for the state in an attempt to weed out future-radicalized will-be-terrorists is a policy built for unintended chaos, given that teachers are neither trained nor properly equipped to fulfill this role. The resulting visit to the boy's home by the authorities from a misspelled word was billed as an example of this overreach by government.
But, as some in the comments pointed out, Lancashire police have pushed back on the BBC's story, saying that it wasn't the misspelled words that triggered the visit and ultimately resulted in the authorities determining there was no need for an investigation, but was instead other schoolwork the boy had done that triggered the visit and ultimately resulted in the authorities determining there was no need for an investigation.
In a statement, police and the county council said it was "untrue to suggest that this situation was brought about by a simple spelling mistake. The school and the police have acted responsibly and proportionately in looking into a number of potential concerns using a low-key, local approach," it said. "No concerns were identified and no further action was required by any agency."For some reason, there are those that think this vindicates both law enforcement and the UK's law because police say the spelling error had nothing to do with any of this. I can't quite figure out the logic of those people, because this is still a story about a teacher using schoolwork to identify a Muslim boy possibly being dangerous that triggered a visit to the boy's home from the authorities. While the BBC has pulled its original post as a result of the pushback, the fundamentals of the story haven't really changed at all. We still have a scared child and an annoyed family stemming from law enforcement action built on the back of a teacher picking through the child's schoolwork. That isn't a sustainable model for combating terrorism, but it is a sustainable model for alienating an entire subsection of a nation's population.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK's largest umbrella group for Islamic associations, said he was aware of dozens of cases similar to that of the schoolboy.Regardless of the police pushback, which was extremely light on details, that hasn't changed.
"There are huge concerns that individuals going about their daily life are being seen through the lens of security and are being seen as potential terrorists rather than students," he said. "This is a natural consequence of the extension of the 'Prevent Duty' to schools."
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Filed Under: children, homework, police, spelling, terrorist, uk
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"Terrorists ate my homework".
I bet that was the schoolwork that moved them to investigate.
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I think he wanted to say "Terriers ate my homework" but autocorrect kicked in.
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Pardon me if I remain sceptical.
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Other school work
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As we all know, sustainable forestry only occurs when we plant at least as many trees as we cut down. Likewise, counter-terrorism is only sustainable if we create as many terrorists as we destroy.
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surveillance from the crib to the grave
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Lame excuses
Unless they are willing to give details, this sounds really, really lame. Possibly even then.
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"I live in a terraced house."
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Re: "I live in a terraced house."
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Well I'm frightened by
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What other schoolwork?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
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Re: What other schoolwork?
where free thinking is not allowed
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Oh, yeah!
You have to wonder if the "solution" isn't more likely to "radicalise" said child way more effectively than whatever it is they thought he'd been "exposed" to.... I know I'd grow up pretty pissed-off if I got pulled in and scared the shit out of for schoolwork...
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Re: Oh, yeah!
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It wasn't just a spelling mistake
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Re: It wasn't just a spelling mistake
Oh, well, in that case then, carry on.
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Not a suprrrize
Yeah the thing is they can't even spell "language" Really. I shit you not.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/22/home-office-misspells-language-english-tests-anno uncement
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/sarcasm because the UK police have no common sense or a sense of humo(u)r
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You can't build something for unintended consequences. Let me fix that for you:
"is a policy built to foment chaos and fear"
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