Birmingham police quiz school boy, 7, in bullet mix-up

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-37911605

Version 0 of 1.

A school has apologised after police were called to interview a seven-year-old boy when a piece of brass was mistaken for a bullet.

Two police cars turned up at the child's house in Birmingham after he showed the metal to teachers at St Edward's Catholic Primary School.

The boy claimed the brass cylinder was a bullet, also mentioning his teenage brother, a cadet, had held a rifle.

His mum accused the school of "racial profiling" because he is Muslim.

The West Midlands academic, who asked to remain anonymous, said she spoke with teachers that day and no-one mentioned anything to her.

'Alarming claims'

Police were at their house when they arrived home.

His mother refused to let officers interview her son, who was "extremely distressed and crying".

"Surely the first port of call is to follow their own procedure, call up parents and say 'your child is making some alarming claims, can you explain them to us'," she told BBC WM.

"Instead, they had already called the police. I don't think the school would have escalated it if we were not Muslim."

The piece of brass was from his brother's design and technology class at school, she said.

Headteacher Joanne Kennett said "As a Catholic school all our children are treated equally and we pride ourselves on the diversity of our pupil intake and community.

"Historically there have been disclosures made of a similar nature, from children who were not from Muslim families and the same course of action has been taken.

"We have apologised to the child's mother for any distress that this had caused to the family."

Det Chf Insp Nick Dale added: "Every report of a firearm is taken extremely seriously.

"Officers will always thoroughly investigate any reports of unlawful guns and ammunition that are reported in the community."