Thursday, June 5, 2014

Police probe into 'whites not welcome' graffiti outside London primary school

(Daily Mail) Pupils as young as four were forced to walk over graffiti which read 'whites not welcome' when they arrived at school yesterday.

The message was found on the entrance path leading to Prince of Wales Primary School, in Enfield, north London.

Hundreds of children saw the words but Enfield Council has said it has since been removed.

Police are now also investigating the incident.

However, some parents claim this is not the first time graffiti on this nature has appeared at the
school.

Mother Jasmin Nathan told the Evening Standard: 'I have two sons aged nine and six who both attend the school and my eldest immediately noticed it before I did and was very inquisitive about it, which broke my heart.

'I've been worried all day about how this may affect his school day or god-forbid, any conflict in the playground as children can be unintentionally very spiteful, especially when discussing things they don't have the mental capacity to understand.'

According to headteacher Jan Bless, other messages appeared along the same stretch of road.

He said: 'This was part of a wider graffiti trail which stretched about a quarter of a mile.

[...]

'The school is multi-cultural and this has offended pretty much everybody in some way, and the school and council have a duty of care towards our children to ensure they don't have to see racial abuse scrawled across the school path.'

[...]

'We have reported this matter to the police who are investigating it.'

Last week a sign appeared outside Bartlett Park in Poplar, which read: 'Do not walk your dog here. 'Muslims don't like dogs. This is an Islamic area now.'

Labour Member of Parliament Jim Fitzpatrick alerted police and the local mayor about the sign after it was flagged up by one of the residents in his east London constituency.

Police say an investigation is now underway to find out who put it up.