10-year-old on hate register for calling a fellow pupil ‘gay boy’

[fredv3b]

I just wanted to say, that there is something very wrong with modern Britain. I believe we exiled common sense.

10-year-old on hate register for calling a fellow pupil ‘gay boy’

[CardShark]

Thats over the top.

Com'on when your in lower school or middle school you use the word gay a lot.
"Thats so gay"
"haha gayyyy"
Maybe the schools should teach the meaning of the word instead of saying oh yep your on the hate register because you used the word but we're not going to teach you about the word...

Sorry but thats backwards, dumbasses in high positions making up stupid laws.

[sox-and-the-city]

Oh dear. Now that makes you despair for common sense.

[matthew91]

that's really really really stupid. When you are 10 years old you say so much stuff and you don't even know what it is! Thats just stupidly ridiculous!

[Kiid]

I believe they should be taught about the word and be given a warning at least. And then other disciplinary acts, like make them write out lines.

[fredv3b]

No argument Josh, but putting him on a formal 'Register', is just silly. How long will his name be on the Register? Who can find out who is on the Register? Even when his name is removed from the Register will people still be able to find out his name was once on it?

[marshlander]

If this news is a complete record of what happened it does indicate a poor use of hate crime legislation. A couple of things make me cautious that we haven't heard the whole story or even the truth of the story. The first is that it is mentioned in Pink News, who often seem to scrape the bottom of the barrel in attempts to turn pretty unremarkable events into a story. Many times I've wondered why they claim a particular item is news. Secondly it was reported in The Daily Mail, a newspaper that would take any opportunity to give someone an excuse to huff and puff about "political correctness gone mad".

If it's true there's something we are not being told. I am pretty sure, though, that putting children on this register is bound to prove counter-productive ... unless there are really exceptional circumstances.

Josh, lines? Really? How would that help except to reinforce resentment and a misapprehension that writing is boring? There are plenty more challenging writing tasks that would actually make someone think about why this language is inappropriate.

[ottawaguy04]

I remember when I was in elementary school (ages 5 or 6 - 12 or 13) kids used to throw the words "gay" and "fag" around as casual insults all the time... I think the situation is improving but kids are cruel and it's not uncommon to hear insults that are racist, prejudiced etc. and the key thing should be to teach the kids why this kind of thing is wrong, not to use over-the-top punishments or legal actions. There's definitely a lack of common sense here assuming the story is accurate.