A 10-year-old girl was abused at school because of the colour of her skin and for issues related to her autism, according to her parents.
The girl, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, has reportedly been victim to abuse from fellow pupils at St Silas C of E Primary School in Toxteth for around four years. Her parents claimed the 10-year-old has been racially abused and mocked for issues related to her autism, including one disturbing incident earlier this week where she was asked "why her skin was so brown".
The girl, who is mixed race, reportedly came home and "broke down" after the most recent incident. Her parents, Steven and Jessica, said she doesn't want to return to the school because of the abuse and have taken steps to remove her from the school.
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Steven and Jessica have criticised the school's 'lack of support' for their daughter, claiming staff have been aware of comments but haven't stopped them. But a spokesperson for the school told the ECHO they have only been formally made aware of one incident since the girl has been at the school - and would "try and work closely" with the family in the future.
The girl's dad Steven told the ECHO on Tuesday this week his daughter was mocked by people who she believed to be friends in the school playground. He said: "Her so-called friends turned around to her and asked 'why are you so brown?' laughing away at her.
"Because of her autism she finds it hard to communicate but she came home that day in tears. Staff heard it but instead of stepping in and saying what they were doing was wrong, they just said the children were playing.
"The kids still need to learn that's wrong. There are days when she just doesn't want to go into school because she's just left on her own - it's heartbreaking." St Silas School denied their staff have been made aware of the incidents.
Jessica told the ECHO her daughter struggles to communicate because she has autism. She said: "She does have problems socialising and communicating so finds it difficult to go and approach someone.
"She also has sensory processing issues and hormonal conditions because of her autism. Because of this she's often told she's fat, she smells, she's ugly.
"It's very worrying for us as parents and we've decided to look to move schools because we don't think the school have met her educational or medical needs."
Jessica and Steven said they've had meetings with another school to move their daughter out the school. They have also criticised St Silas School after they received a formal letter highlighting their daughter's lack of attendance at the school. They added they were threatened with a fine because of it.
But they also said the reason her attendance has dropped off is because their daughter is too scared to go to school because of fears of more abuse from pupils. Because of this the girl, in year five, is currently functioning at a year three level.
Jessica added: "The school is a multi-cultural school so there are other black children, so for my daughter to be asked 'why are you brown?' was really shocking for me.
"She's not been sleeping, she doesn't want to go to school because she's got no friends. She's socially isolated. We're definitely pulling her out the school - I wish I had done it a long time ago."
A spokesperson for St Silas School told the ECHO: “Our school is a very multi-cultural and supportive community. The happiness and wellbeing of all of our pupils is of utmost importance, and any issues of bullying or discriminatory behaviour are taken extremely seriously.
“We have been working very closely with the parent since her child joined the school. With the exception of something that happened outside of school nearly a year ago, we have never been made aware, formally or informally, of any of the allegations that are currently being shared.
“We have been helping the parent and her child to get additional support from outside agencies, and we know that a letter was sent a few days ago in line with our attendance policy. This is our statutory responsibility, but we would have potentially approached the issue of this letter differently if these concerns had been made known to us before now.
“At this moment, the parent has given no indication that she intends to withdraw her child from our community. We will continue to try and work closely with her, and hope that her child continues to learn with us.”
