School which banned girl, 12, from ‘diversity day' for Union Jack dress closes early for summer over ‘extremist threats'
Courtney, 12, had chosen to wear the dress as part of the school's diversity day.
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Bilton School in Rugby, Warwickshire, announced that it was closing "in the interests of student and staff safety" following threats.
The school released a letter to parents on Thursday in which is said it was receiving "extremist abuse online and via our telephone systems".
Headteacher Jayne Delves and Ranjit Samra, CEO of Stowe Valley Multi-Academy Trust, both said that members of staff had been threatened.
The letter said that the "nature and tone" of the threats had escalated in recent days too.
The letter continued: "While we have been working closely with our multi-agency partners to address the situation, our primary responsibility remains the safety and wellbeing of every child and member of staff.
"This is not a decision we have taken lightly. We understand the disruption this may cause to your families and your child's education, but the safety of our school community must come first."
The abuse followed an online frenzy over Courtney's decision to wear the now controversial dress on her school's Culture Celebration Day.
Courtney had chosen the dress in reference to the iconic outfit worn by Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.
However, she was allegedly told: 'You get to celebrate being British every day, this is for everybody else.'
The 12-year-old had planned to read a speech about tea, Shakespeare, fish and chips and the royals as part of her presentation.
Courtney was offered the chance to wear second-hand uniform, instead of the dress she had chosen.
When she refused, her father, Stuart Field, arrived at the school and took her home.
Stuart said the school had issued a "grovelling apology" before slamming them for "virtue signalling".
He said: 'Her head of year bizarrely said that if she had worn a suit of armour or a nurse's outfit, she probably would have been allowed. It's ridiculous.
"The irony is they were having a cultural diversity day and yet they singled out a group of people.
'She's a grade-A student and they have vilified her and punished her for being proud of being British.'
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The Independent
a few seconds ago
- The Independent
What next for social media ‘martyr' Lucy Connolly after leaving prison?
Lucy Connolly is out of jail. She was one of about 1,800 arrested for offences during riots last summer in the wake of the Southport murders. Connolly, from Northampton, was convicted and jailed for publishing 'threatening or abusive' material on social media including an incitement to 'set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care.' Hers is one of the more high-profile cases and some activists have taken up her cause, claiming she has been a victim of 'two tier' policing, harsh sentencing, and restricted free speech. Her sentence was 31 months; a bid to reduce it was rejected by the Court of Appeal in May. Under current early release rules, she is allowed out on licence for the remainder of her sentence, having served 40 per cent. What did Connolly do wrong? Her supporters mostly concede that what she said was wrong, but many also minimise it as mere 'hurty words' for which nobody should be given a custodial sentence. There is also the suspicion in some quarters that the punishment was heavier because of political pressure; the prime minister said at the time that the full force of the law should be brought down on offenders. But her case was carefully examined at Birmingham Crown Court and at the Court of Appeal. The facts were not in dispute, she pled guilty, and the judges have considered the context and acted within the guidelines approved by ministers. What did she post on social media? The mother-of-three, who was working as a childminder at the time and is the wife of a Tory councillor, wrote a number of messages but attention focused on this X post that was later deleted: ''Mass deportation now. Set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care. While you're at it, take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.' While visible, it had been viewed 310,000 times and reposted 940 times. Four days earlier, Connolly had responded to a video shared online by Tommy Robinson, showing a black male being tackled to the ground for allegedly masturbating in public. 'Somalian, I guess. Loads of them,' she wrote, adding a vomiting emoji. Five days after the Southport murders Connolly stated on social media, referencing an anti-racism demo: 'Oh good. I take it they will all be in line to sign up to house an illegal boat invader then. Oh sorry, refugee. Maybe sign a waiver to say they don't mind if it's one of their family that gets attacked, butchered, raped etc, by unvetted criminals. Not all heroes wear capes.' Another message, on WhatsApp, read: 'The raging tweet about burning down hotels has bit me on the arse lol.' Another message, sent later, was in response to the furore she'd caused. According to the Court of Appeal, in another message she said she intended to tell authorities she had been the victim of doxing and went on to say that if she got arrested she would 'play the mental health card'. Did she have a defence? According to the Court of Appeal: 'The stabbings of the children in Southport had put her into a rage. She said she felt hatred about the incident and the circumstances, not about race. She said she had taken the post down because she realised it was wrong. Later in the interview she said her tweets were not racial and she had no intention to cause hate or racial issues.' Is she a hero? To some, she is akin to Emmeline Pankhurst or Joan of Arc. Senior members of the Trump administration have raised questions about freedom of speech in the UK as a result of the treatment of those who sent messages and were subsequently convicted of public order offences. Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, has lauded her in these terms: 'Welcome to freedom, Lucy Connolly. You are now a symbol of Keir Starmer's authoritarian, broken, two-tier Britain.' Kemi Badenoch has attacked the way the courts treated Connolly, going in hard on the two-tier charge: 'Lucy Connolly finally returns home to her family today. At last. Her punishment was harsher than the sentences handed down for bricks thrown at police or actual rioting… meanwhile, former Labour councillor Ricky Jones called for protestors to have their throats slit. Charged with encouraging violent disorder, he pleaded not guilty and was acquitted by a jury who saw his words as a disgusting remark made in the heat of the moment, not a call to action.' Connolly will have no shortage of media outlets, some highly sympathetic, on which to appear should she wish. What does Keir Starmer think? He thinks politicians should stay out of the courtroom, and has no regrets. He told the Commons in May: 'Sentencing is a matter for our courts, and I celebrate the fact that we have independent courts in this country. I am strongly in favour of free speech … but I am equally against incitement to violence against other people.' What will happen next? Another extended skirmish in Britain's endless and debilitating culture wars. Maybe that chap who took a brick to his testes during the disturbances will be the next contender for martyrdom.
Daily Mail
a minute ago
- Daily Mail
Little boy's heartbreaking words after his dad was killed in Shoreham Airshow disaster - as widow calls for criminal probe into 'remorseless' pilot to be re-opened
The heartbreaking words a little boy said after his father was killed in the Shoreham Airshow disaster have been revealed. Georgio Polito, now 13, was just three years old when his dad, Daniele Polito, then 23, lost his life in the tragedy at Shoreham Airport in West Sussex on August 22, 2015. Pilot Andy Hill, 60, crashed a Hawker Hunter T7 jet on to the A27 close to the airport's boundary - with Mr Polito one of the 11 drivers on the motorway killed in the crash. The ex-RAF airman and British Airways captain was severely injured after crashing the vintage 1950s fighter plane he was performing in at the annual airshow. He was cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence at the Old Bailey in 2019. And on the tenth anniversary of the disaster, the dreadful words young Georgio uttered after he lost his dad have been revealed: 'My dad died for nothing.' The boy's mother and Mr Polito's widow, Tanya Hewstone, 30, said: 'For a child to say that, it was really hard.' It comes as the full-time mother calls for a criminal probe into the pilot to be re-opened, in a new petition she is set to launch. She said Mr Hill has shown a 'no remorse' by reapplying for his pilot's licence twice, with the latest application refused in May this year by the High Court. Ms Hewstone said her still grieving son has been excluded from multiple schools because of anger issues - 'compounded' by the fact Hill did not go to prison. 'Georgio has a lot of trauma', she said. 'I think it's hard for anyone to be a single parent, to be a completely alone parent. 'Because Georgio's a boy, I don't know how to answer the questions he has sometimes as he grows up. 'I feel like I've taken the full force of him losing his dad. The last ten years have been really hard.' Mr Polito was driving in a BMW with his work colleague Matt Jones - who also lost his life in the tragedy - when their car was hit by the plane. He was formerly engaged to Ms Hewstone but the pair had not been together in the three months leading up to the crash. It comes as the full-time mother calls for a criminal probe into the pilot to be re-opened, in a new petition she is set to launch. Pictured: Emergency services on the A27 after the plane crashed on to the road in August 2015 She did not tell Georgio about his dad's death for more than two weeks after it happened as she simply did not know how to break the news. The mother explained: 'I was feeding the ducks with him when it happened but I didn't find out Daniele had died until the following morning. 'When I told him, I said that daddy had been involved in an accident and he had to go up to the sky. 'I had his grandma with me at the time and Georgio said he was going to get his dad from the sky. 'A year after the accident, he was on a plane on holiday and he said he didn't see his dad.' A coroner ruled in December 2022 the victims of the disaster were unlawfully killed, describing Mr Hill's flying as 'exceptionally bad' and judging it to blame for the crash that saw his jet explode in a fireball. Senior coroner Penelope Schofield said the aircraft crashed as 'a result of the manner in which it was flown'. But the Air India crash in June which left 270 people dead, including several on the ground, 'triggered' Ms Hewstone again. It left her determined to get the Shoreham Airshow case reopened: 'There should be justice for all the families and the pilot should not be a free man. 'If I was in a car and dodged a pothole and killed 11 people, I'd be in prison. She added: 'He said before flying that plane, he felt unwell, therefore he should never have flown. He also said he blacked out but there's no proof of that.' On the anniversary day itself tomorrow, Ms Hewstone and Georgio will head to the memorial at the motorway bridge to pay their respects to Mr Polito. 'It doesn't feel like it's been ten years at all', she reflected. 'It's weird to think it's been ten years and no justice, no closure - I can't believe it happened. Any future has been taken away. Where would we be now?' It comes after Mr Hill recently declined to say sorry for the awful events of that day. A spokesperson for him told The Mirror last week: 'Mr Hill does not want to make any public statement about the tragic events of Shoreham.' Earlier this year, Mr Hill's final attempt to regain his pilot's licence through a legal challenge was refused at the High Court. He had lodged a Judicial Review just months after he lost an appeal following a two-day hearing in London in October last year. The decision to challenge the ruling was heavily criticised by families who lost loved ones in the Shoreham Airshow disaster. Mr Hill's lawyers previously argued the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) took the decision to stop him flying based on public reaction to the 2015 tragedy. The annual Shoreham Airshow, which had been running since 1989, has not run since. The CAA previously said: 'Following a public hearing on a challenge by Andrew Hill to a UK Civil Aviation Authority proposal to revoke his pilot and flight radio telephony licences, the Civil Aviation Authority's decision panel has confirmed that proposal and Andrew Hill's licences will now formally be revoked. 'Following the crash at the Shoreham Airshow in 2015 in which 11 people died, Andrew Hill's licences were suspended, and he has been unable to fly in the UK since then. 'The thoughts of everyone at the UK Civil Aviation Authority remain with those affected by the tragic crash.'
Telegraph
a minute ago
- Telegraph
Social media hate prosecutions hit record high after Connolly conviction
Prosecutions for posts on social media that could stir up racial hatred have soared in the past decade, prompting calls for a review of the law. Ministry of Justice figures show that in 2015, just one person was convicted of the offence compared with 44 in 2024. The offence is a crime under the Public Order Act and any prosecutions must be signed off by Lord Hermer, the Attorney General. The consent of the AG's office was put in place partly as a safeguard to prevent the criminal justice system unreasonably clamping down on free speech. However, campaigners and politicians have said the growing number of prosecutions show the law is being used too widely, being enforced too strictly and is having a corrosive impact on freedom of expression. It comes after Lucy Connolly, 42, was released from HMP Peterborough on Thursday having been sentenced to 31 months for a racist tweet posted online in the wake of the Southport stabbings. Following her release, Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative party, said: 'Protecting people from words should not be given greater weight in law than public safety. If the law does this, then the law itself is broken – and it's time Parliament looked again at the Public Order Act.' Over the past 10 years, a total of 141 people have been convicted of publishing material intending to stir up racial hatred contrary to Section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986. Almost a third of those convictions (31 per cent) came in 2024 following the widespread disorder that erupted across the country in the wake of the Southport killings. However, there appears to be an increase in the number of people being prosecuted for the offence in recent years. From 2015 to 2019, 48 people were charged with the offence, compared with 93 from 2020 to 2024. The majority of those convictions (86) have come in the past three years. The offence does not solely relate to posts on social media, and people have been convicted of publishing leaflets and videos. The majority of charges in recent years, however, are understood to be related to online content. Connolly served 380 days behind bars after she pleaded guilty to publishing material intended to incite racial hatred for a single tweet. In it, she called for mass deportations and to 'set fire to all the f------ hotels full of the b------- for all I care, while you're at it take the treacherous government politicians with them'. She deleted the post less than four hours later after it became clear a large amount of misinformation relating to the identity of the attacker was circling online, but not before it had been viewed more than 310,000 times. The attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year saw Axel Rudakubana, 19, murder Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Widespread rioting and disorder broke out at hotels housing asylum seekers following the attack. Lord Young, founder and director of the Free Speech Union, said the rapidly growing number of prosecutions showed the threshold for bringing such cases to court had to be higher. 'The test for incitement should be the same as it is in the United States, namely, were the words in question intended to incite violence and were they likely to incite violence, with both limbs needing to be satisfied to secure a conviction,' he said. 'In my view, neither limb was satisfied in Lucy Connolly's case so she would not have been prosecuted if we applied this test.' Under the Public Order Act, a person can be jailed for up to seven years. Lord Young continued: 'Lucy was convicted for intending to stir up racial hatred, with the prosecution not needing to show that her tweet was likely to do so. 'Sentencing someone to more than two-and-a-half years in jail for a malign intention is manifestly unjust.' Earlier this year, it was reported that police were making more than 30 arrests a day over offensive posts on social media and other platforms. Custody data shows that officers are making about 12,000 arrests a year under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. Officers from 37 police forces made 12,183 arrests in 2023, the equivalent of about 33 per day. This marks an almost 58 per cent rise in arrests since before the pandemic. In 2019, forces logged 7,734 detentions.
