Attack on young Sikh boy in Leeds being treated as hate crime

Shocking footage of the boy, who is wearing the traditional Sikh turban, being punched was posted by Sunny Osahn on Twitter on Thursday.

The attack lands several punches on the victim, who is almost forced into the path of oncoming traffic.

The 15-year-old boy, believed to be a pupil at The Morley Academy, is from an Afghan Sikh family who fled their home country in fear for their safety, according to Mr Osahn.

His and his wife Chaz have posted about the incident on their news channel, Brown Network News.

The attack itself happened in November, but Mr Osahn explained he had posted it - with the permission of the boy's parents - to raise awareness of the issue and bring about action.

The couple are particularly concerned about the boy's mental health.

In a Brown Network News post, Chaz explained that the couple had been in touch with the boy since summer 2019 over concerns around bullying.

Initially they gave him advice about staying away from certain children and reporting incidents to teachers.

Sunny said he wrote a letter to the school's Principal, Adam Ryder, and the Gorse Academies Trust, who run the school - but were told they would speak directly to the boy's parents, who do not speak very good English.

The boy started Year 10 in September, when the bullying started again.

"With the family's consent, and with the young man's consent, we asked if we could raise this," Chaz said.

Sunny said: "Nothing gets done unless there's social and societal pressure, so we wanted to create a bit of awareness, and that's worked."

"Nobody likes to see get punched, no one likes to see bullying happening, especially in Leeds, especially not when its a young Sikh boy from his kind of background.

"He 'a very vulnerable kid from a vulnerable family."

Chaz said: "You can see the parent's eyes, their hearts are aching. You hear it, the way they speak."

The couple explained that the school were aware of the problem, but claimed the school is blaming the young Sikh boy.

West Yorkshire Police Superintendent Jackie Marsh of the Safer Leeds Partnership said: “We are aware of footage currently circulating on social media and a comprehensive partnership response is in place.

"A hate crime has been recorded and we are working closely with the family of the boy.

"As per their request, the matter is being resolved via the school concerned in conjunction with our Safer Schools Liaison Officer.

"We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure there is no repeat and where necessary providing support to the local community.”

Statement in full from The Morley Academy's Principal, Adam Ryder:

"It has been brought to my attention that there has been a significant amount of activity on social media on Friday 28 February 2020 regarding an incident which occurred in November 2019.

"The incident in question involved two students from The Morley Academy who were involved in a physical altercation.

"This incident happened outside of the academy day and took place approximately 5 miles away from the academy premises.

"I want to take this opportunity to reassure parents and carers, as well as other members of our community, that the academy has taken this incident extremely seriously and have been working closely with the families of the students involved as well as West Yorkshire Police and the Leeds Safeguarding Team.

"When the incident was brought to the attention of the academy, we worked closely with the families and supported them with reporting the incident to the Police. Since then, we have fully

cooperated and supported the Police with their investigation.

"In addition to this, those involved in the incident whose behaviour was wholly and totally unacceptable, have been appropriately sanctioned in line with our Positive Discipline policy.

"As I am sure you can appreciate, we are not able to comment, or share, the specifics of a Police investigation. Furthermore, we are unable to discuss or comment further about this incident with those who are not registered family members of the students involved.

"On Friday, we made the West Yorkshire Police Safeguarding Team aware of the video footage that had been posted on social media so that they could monitor the situation further.

"We are very grateful to the Police of their support and they have confirmed the following in writing to us:

'We are absolutely satisfied that every incident reported within school has been investigated thoroughly and we hold the safeguarding workers in very high regard.

'Every incident has been recorded and sanctions put in place when required.

'We are also satisfied that any incident within the school is dealt with correctly, the safeguarding team at the school are excellent and work very hard for every child.

'Staff have also put in place various safeguarding measures to support the students and families.'

"At this time, I would politely ask for the support of all parents, students and other members of the community by not commenting on, or sharing, social media posts related to this incident.

"This is because you will not be aware of the full details of the incident or the subsequent Police investigation which has taken place.

"Although some may believe that they are raising fair and valid points over social media, there also needs to be an understanding that these comments might actually have an adverse effect and could serve to antagonise a situation which has been dealt with, and handled by, the Police."