Equality activists have expressed outrage that a boy has lost his finger after reportedly fleeing thugs.
Raheem Bailey, 11, caught his finger climbing a fence to escape and he could not be saved despite undergoing surgery.
His mother Shantal said her son, a student at the Abertillery Learning Community in Blaenau Gwent, had been subjected to “racist and physical abuse”.
Boxer Anthony Joshua and footballer Jadon Sancho are among those sending messages of support to Raheem.
An online fundraiser launched by Ms Bailey has already raised almost £100,000 in donations.
Prof Uzo Iwobi, executive director of Race Council Cymru, said she was concerned people still didn’t believe black lives matter.
- Abertillery: Police investigate student’s injuries, May 11
All Abertillery Learning Community campuses will be closed Monday for health and safety reasons. Students will use blended learning instead.
Blaenau Gwent City Council said: “The safety and welfare of learners and staff remain of the utmost importance to the learning community and local authority at all times.”
Prof Iwobi said: “I am absolutely disappointed, disgusted and outraged that this is the experience of black children in Wales.”
“I have the feeling that nothing has improved. Teachers and schools’ educational leaders have to be particularly keen to expose racism and racial harassment, and they don’t,” she added.
Ms. Iwobi believed that teachers should be required to collect the number of racist incidents in schools.
“This boy could have lost his life trying to get away,” she said, adding that her own children faced racism at school growing up.
Ms. Iwobi added, “The question I want to ask every teacher and every local education authority is, ‘When are black lives going to matter?’
“When will we know that black children will come home alive and with their fingers and toes attached? I am afraid for all our children that they might come back in a box.
“This boy will have four fingers for the rest of his life. His life is now marked by a racist incident and all he has gone to is school.”
Ms Bailey said her son was “attacked” by a group of children on Tuesday, who kicked him as he lay on the ground.
She explained how he caught his finger in the fence trying to escape and after the operation it was decided that he had to be amputated.
“I’m grateful and happy that he’s alive,” she said.
“He actually said he was worried and thought he might have died, he just couldn’t get away no matter what he did.”
Wales’ Children’s Ombudsman Rocio Cifuentes said it was “heartbreaking” what happened to Raheem and that she would investigate the case “with urgency”.
Ms Bailey has said that Anthony Joshua, Jadon Sancho and footballer Ashley Williams – a former Wales captain – have all sent messages of support for Raheem via Instagram.
Ms Bailey said Raheem had also received messages from football manager Chris Hughton, pundit Gary Neville and Olympic BMX biker Kye Whyte.
“There are so many people here in different places who have been so generous and I didn’t expect what happened so I’m really, really grateful for that,” Ms Bailey said.
She said the messages he received meant so much as people told him “how strong he is and that doesn’t define him”.
Ms Bailey said her son was “really brave” but “in utter agony”.
“The whole time [he was] tell me, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry mommy. I just couldn’t, I couldn’t stay there, why doesn’t anyone like me? Why did you choose me?”
“These are things that my child, while in pain, has to keep asking me, ‘Mom, why doesn’t anyone like me?
Speaking on the broader issue of bullying and racism in schools, Ms Bailey added: “Why would I send my kid to school to be a punching bag?”
Through tears, she said: “As a mother, it’s difficult to have to tell your child that maybe people don’t like you because of your skin — not because you’re mean, not because you’re terrible, just because of the skin, in into which he was born.”
Gwent Police said the suspected attack was reported to them around 1pm BST on Wednesday 18 May.
It said it was working with the school as part of its investigation.
The Abertillery Learning Community said it is working with police and the council.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We condemn bullying and racial harassment in all forms and expect allegations and incidents of bullying and racism to be fully investigated by schools, with appropriate action taken to address the matter and prevent further incidents .”
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