Boy, 11, suffering 'so much racism' at school his face has broken out in sores
The mum of a schoolboy being targeted by racist bullies says the stress of their cruelty has brought him out in sores.
Abelvalentine Farey, 11, has suffered horrific racism in his time at St Mary's Catholic Primary School in East London, so much so it triggered the stress-induced skin condition on his face.
His mum Billie Farey has now demanded the school puts in place tougher rules on racism in the classroom, as well as issue a written apology and quash a £60 fine she received for pulling him out of a school trip because of the bullying.
Abelvalentine - also known as Abel - began experiencing racism as soon as he began school at four, Ms Farey said, claiming he once heartbreakingly told her, "Mum, I don’t want brown skin, I want white skin like yours".
The youngster recently stole hearts after being spotted on national TV crying in joy after seeing his team West Ham win the Europa Conference League final.
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Billie with son Abel (Billie Farey)
The stress of the situation has triggered a skin condition bringing poor Abel out in sores (Billie Farey)But at school he's faced vile taunts from others in the classroom, including hurtful comments such as "why is your skin that colour?" and "why are your lips big?". And while Billie says she was prepared to put the questions down to tactless but benign curiosity, the racism escalated when Abel began being "punched and kicked", she told MyLondon.
Forced to intervene, the mum and trainee therapist said Abel stopped going to children's birthday parties over fears of being excluded. Since then, the bigotry has ramped up to the point she has had to go into the school up to twice a month over the past year.
Billie claims bullies have said to her son that ‘black lives don’t matter,’ ‘you’re like cancer,’ ‘f****** monkey’, ‘your skin’s brown and dirty’, ‘black gorilla’. But to her disgust, when her son has stood up for himself, he’s been forced to shake hands with those allegedly abusing him, she claims.
Terrifyingly, at the start of May, she claims ‘three boys jumped’ Abel on the school field, causing the 11-year-old to have to defend himself. This was followed by another attack ‘a week later’. This was the final straw for Billie and led her to take decisive action by not letting Abel go on a Year 6 school trip to the Isle of Wight. But to her disgust, the school fined her £60 for this.
All the stress, Billie said, caused Abel’s developed perioral dermatitis, a condition which has left him with ‘patches’ on his face, which came just hours after he was allegedly punched.
It has also led him to have ‘numerous meltdowns' about going to school, and if something bad happens on a Friday then he will ‘hyper focus’ on the issue until Monday morning.
She said: “He gets so worried about what’s going to happen on Monday, that it ruins our whole weekend. His nerves and anxiety have been through the roof.”
Billie claims the school’s response to her son’s bullying has not been good enough.
“Over the course of time they’ve tried to justify the alleged racism of other children by saying ‘Abel’s responded this way or that way’. They will make excuses for what has been said, for example by saying ‘[the children are] just curious'."
As a result there are three things Billie would like to see done. The first is to introduce a two-strike system at the school for dealing with racist bullying. The first strike would see the child reminded they’ve made a mistake, while for the second time "there will be no excuse".
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She added: “The school needs to change the rules and needs to change its policy, it is unacceptable, the policies need to change."
Billie also wants to see the £60 fine she received for pulling Abel out of the school trip rescinded, as there were clear ‘mitigating circumstances’.
In response to Billie's complaints and issues raised a school spokesperson said: "We are aware of the comments in the media attributed to a parent of a child in our school.
"The matter remains part of an on-going complaint, that is being investigated in accordance with the school complaints policy; it would therefore be inappropriate for the school to comment further until the investigation into the complaint has been completed.
"The school has very clear policies with regards to behaviour and condemns all forms of discrimination. Copies of the relevant policies are available on the school website and are reviewed and updated regularly."
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