Summary

We’ve written to Inspector Andy Thornton, the police officer leading the investigation into the events at Kettlethorpe High School involving a 14 year-old autistic boy bringing a copy of the Quran into the school. We have complained about the fact that the episode is being treated as a ‘hate incident’ by West Yorkshire Police. We’ve asked Thornton to assure us that the four boys at the centre of the story have not had ‘non-crime hate incidents’ recorded against their names and, if they have, to remove them immediately. As the school said, there’s no evidence of any malicious intent and damaging a book that belongs to you, even if it is the Quran, should not be treated as a ‘hate incident’.