Xaccers, I understood you perfectly. You didn't actually answer my questions. However reading between the lines of what you did write, I have concluded that your answer to:

"That a 14 year old's comments led to her being arrested for a "hate crime" is depressing example of the political correctness affecting this country. Even if your preferred version of events is true, shouldn't this have been dealt with by a reasonable teacher or the headmaster alone? Did the school really need to involve the police?"

... would have been "yes", and your answer to:

"Please clarify: If she had been honest, ie that she was expected to discuss a subject with a group of 5 others, only 1 of whom could speak English, do you think she acted reasonably in asking her teacher if she could change groups?"

... would have been "no".

Different points of view do make the world a more democratic planet.

And nowhere did I suggest that lobbying against racism is a bad thing. Discrimination on the basis of skin colour, race (and in most cases, religion too) is abhorrent.

(The centering was by accident, not design!)