Police Questions 10-Year-Old Who Spelled ‘Terrorist’ By Mistake

The boy, whose has not been identified, was questioned by the police in north west England for mistakenly writing that he lives in a “terrorist house” instead of “terraced house” during an English lesson in school.

The boy’s family told the BBC they were left shocked by the incident in December and had asked the school and police to apologise.

The boy’s cousin, who did not want to be named, told the BBC: “They shouldn’t be putting a child through this”.

Since last summer, teachers have been legally bound to report suspected extremist behaviour in the classroom to police under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015.

Lancashire Police said in a statement that a police officer and a social worker visited the boy at his home in Accrington because of the misspelling.

She said: “You can imagine it happening to a 30-year-old man, but not to a young child”.

Though the family say they did not have to go for further questioning, his cousin called the incident a “joke”, adding the boy was now “scared of writing, scared of using his imagination”.

But critics argue that teachers are overreacting for fear of breaking the law.

“There weren’t believed to be any areas for concern and no additional action was needed by any agency”.

Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Britain’s largest umbrella group for Islamic associations, blamed the government’s “Prevent” programme, aimed at countering radicalisation.

The Department for Education issued advice for schools and childcare providers on how to meet the new requirement, saying: “It is important to emphasise that the Prevent duty is not meant to stop pupils debating controversial issues”.

The school said it was not able to comment because it had been investigating a complaint made regarding the event.