The new legislation which requires teachers to report any suspected form of extremist behaviour to the authorities is completely understandable but it must involve a degree of discretion.
It emerged yesterday that a 10-year-old Muslim boy was interviewed by police in Lancashire last month after mistakenly writing in an essay that he lived in a `terrorist' rather than a terraced house.
As no other evidence of criminality was produced, the case plainly represented a ludicrous waste of official resources and both the pupil and his family are entitled to an apology.
While public vigilance is always necessary, even in primary schools, it needs to be accompanied by a reasonable degree of common sense at all times.
