Euro 2020 racism: School pupil abused after England defeat, family say

The pupil was targeted as a direct result of England losing to Italy on penalties, her family says

A pupil was forced to hide in a school toilet to escape a torrent of racist abuse after England's Euro 2020 final defeat, her family said.

The girl was targeted at Driffield School in East Yorkshire after the Three Lions lost on penalties.

Her sister said the pupil, who is of mixed race, had been racially abused before but it was "worse than ever" on Monday following events at Wembley.

The school said it would not tolerate racist abuse or language.

Louise, whose surname has been withheld, said although her sister had not disclosed the exact nature of the comments, she said they were linked directly to some of the England players and what happened in the final.

"She is used to daily taunts and various other insults," she said, describing racial slurs.

"Really threatening, really unpleasant, but my sister said Monday was the worst it had ever been."

"She was hiding in the toilets because of a few children thinking it is ok to say these awful, hurtful, hateful comments to her - it's just sent me over the edge," she said.

"I was really angry to begin with, then sad," she added.

She is calling for more to be done to tackle racism in schools.

The girl's sister said she was outraged by what happened

England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were subjected to racist abuse on social media after all three players missed penalties in the 3-2 shootout loss.

It sparked a wave of condemnation, and led Prime Minister Boris Johnson to promise changes in the law to allow perpetrators of online attacks to be banned from matches.

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In a statement, the school said: "Although we cannot comment on the detail of individual cases, we find racism, and all forms of discrimination, abhorrent and are working closely with the family.

"It is important that all members of our school community are aware that we do not tolerate racist abuse or language [and] where any members of our school community have been subject to racism or discrimination, we have punished individuals involved.

"As well as disciplinary action, we place a high value on education [and] there are a number of issues that, as a society, we need to tackle and schools play an important role in that," it added.

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