The mother of a 7-year-old boy is outraged at how her son was treated by police after he was reported for having a bullet by his school.

The boy attends a Catholic primary school in Birmingham, UK, and was said to be very “very distressed and intimidated” after officers came to question him directly, despite it turning out the bullet was just a piece of metal.

The boy’s older brother has been away on Army Cadet course and the boy had a brass cylinder that he told teachers was a bullet from a rifle his brother was using.

The mother was not contacted by police and despite being aware the boy was telling tales, they decided to harass him anyway.

Speaking to Tell Mama, a charity that monitors Islamophobia, the mother said:

“It immediately became apparent that neither the school nor the police thought it was a real bullet, yet nobody thought to use some common sense. Instead it was unduly escalated and left my seven-year-old very distressed and intimidated that police officers were insisting to question him directly.

“It is ridiculous that no one used any common sense and that it was ever taken any further by both the school and the police.

“I am also very angry about the way the matter was escalated. They – the school and the police – were heavy-handed and placed undue suspicion on a seven-year-old. They caused him a lot of distress that could have been avoided. They left him mistrusting his teachers after they told him it would be a matter to discuss only with parents and they dealt with us as parents in a way they would not deal with non-Muslim parents.”

Kids should not be treated like this! Even if it was a bullet, there are ways to deal with this and the police could have dealt directly with the parents.

Shake my head!

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