A MOTHER has told how she removed her daughter from Cockenzie Primary School more than a year ago after the young girl was racially abused by classmates.

Last week, the school sent out letters to parents saying that incidents of racial bullying had been brought to the attention of staff.

But a 36-year-old mum has told the Courier that she reported disturbing incidents to the then headteacher over a year before, after other children told her daughter, who was seven at the time, “we hate Muslims”.

But, she said, despite raising the matter with East Lothian Council, no action was taken.

And she said the local authority’s failure to take it seriously had left children at the school vulnerable to further incidents.

The mum spoke out after the Courier revealed last week that current headteacher Jacqui Mackinnon had written to parents voicing her horror at discovering racial bullying in her school.

She urged parents to support the school in “eradicating this bullying”.

However, the mother we spoke to, who did not want to be identified for the sake of her daughter, said this was a long-standing problem at the school which pre-dated the new headteacher’s appointment.

She said: “When my daughter was told by other children ‘we hate Muslims’ I was shocked. Children don’t come out with something like that on their own, they have to be hearing it from adults.

“I couldn’t believe it, and I reported it to the then headteacher.

“When no action was taken, I went to the council, but since it was denied by the school they didn’t take it further.

“I was not surprised when I heard this letter had been sent out as there is a problem there.” The girl has an Egyptian father and spent some of her earliest years living in the North African nation.

Her mum said: “When my daughter started at Cockenzie she didn’t speak much English – after all, she had been raised in another country.

“It was a difficult time as she settled into a new culture and learned a new language.

“I thought Cockenzie Primary School would be a good place for her. I never expected her to encounter racism there, and from children so young.

“She went from a bubbly, outgoing girl, to a child in distress, and stopped wanting to go to school.

“I felt unsupported and in March last year I moved her to a new fee-paying school, where she is very happy.” A council spokeswoman said: “We can’t comment on individual cases, but would emphasise that East Lothian schools do not tolerate bullying in any shape or form.

“We try to act quickly to resolve any issues around bullying that are reported to us.

“East Lothian schools have a robust complaints procedure which we would advise parents to use if they feel they have not had sufficient redress from their school.”