Sickening footage has emerged of foul-mouthed eight-year-olds chasing after a young girl and screaming racist abuse at her.
The group of boys can be heard singing songs about ‘n*****s’ and calling the girl an ‘asian b*****d’ in the distressing clip.
The girl, who is about the same age, is forced to pick up a large wooden stick to protect herself.
The boy snatches the stick away from the girl, as he and his friends chant abuse
The group of boys can be heard singing songs about ‘n*****s’ and calling the girl an ‘asian b*****d’ in the distressing clip
The disturbing clip was recorded outside Holytown Primary School in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. It is understood it was filmed towards the end of the summer term.
The video begins with a young girl in the distance holding a large wooden stick as a crowd of boys surround her.
A young boy can be heard off camera saying: ‘Is it ok if I say something a wee bit racist and you try not to laugh?
‘One, two, three, four. How many n*****s are in my store?’
A woman in the park can be heard telling the boys to leave the girl alone. When she asks if they go to Holytown School the boys initially deny it before pointing to the school and saying ‘I go there’.
The clip then cuts to the group of screaming boys running across a field and taunting the girl as they shout: ‘You asian b*****d’ and ‘mon you gypsy’.
Later in the footage, a boy takes the girl’s wooden stick and another can then be seen chasing her down a street as the others cheer him on.
He then makes a lewd gesture to the camera, and the girl can be seen running away from the group as they scream ‘f*** the asians, oh she’s stealing.’
A boy takes the girl’s wooden stick and another can then be seen chasing her down a street as the others cheer him on
The youngster is chased by the gang across a field, as they cruelly jeer and taunt her
A young boy can be heard off camera saying: ‘Is it ok if I say something a wee bit racist and you try not to laugh?’
A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council said: ‘This incident took place outwith school grounds and after the school day had ended.
‘However, we do not condone any form of racism in our schools and work hard to foster a culture of respect and tolerance among all our pupils.’
A spokesman for the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) said: ‘Racial bullying is still racial bullying whether it occurs in schools or outside, and we feel that the school still has a duty to deal with the issues even if they are happening outside the school gates.
‘Whilst the boys might think what they are doing is having harmless fun, the effects on the victim can be really serious and long lasting.
‘If the video is genuine, then unless some work is done with the boys in question it is quite likely that their attitudes and behaviours will get even worse as they grow up.’
The terrified youngster flees the scene, running around the corner away from the gang
In June this year MSPs on the Equalities and Human Rights Committee said more needed to be done to tackle bullying in schools after hearing ‘gut-wrenching’ evidence from young people.
The committee’s report said it uncovered evidence that prejudice-based bullying was on the increase and that racism had ‘made a resurgence’.
A Freedom of Information request to Scottish local councils in 2016 found that there were almost 2,000 incidents of racism recorded in primary schools.