Indian-origin teacher sues UK school for racism

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London: An Indian-origin model-turned teacher, once named among Britain's top 20 hottest men, has sued his school for over 100,000 pounds after he was called a "Paki" in a volley of racial abuses and the national tri-colour was removed from his classroom and dirtied.

Haresh Sood, 35, claims racist notes and pictures were put in his staff pigeonhole, including a scribbled drawing of his face captioned 'Farewell Bollywog!', shortly before he was axed from his post at Nottingham's Christ the King School.

The languages teacher, an Indian ex-model who was once named one of Britain's most eligible bachelors, complained that another note read "Good Riddance Turbanator!"

Mr Sood said his school register was torn and his national flag removed from his classroom and dirtied, the Daily Mail reported.

He claims some pupils called him a "Paki n*****", "black b******" as well as "vindaloo" and "chicken curry".

Mr Sood said a colleague at the Catholic secondary school told him to shave an Indian flag into his hair and called him a 't***'.

A tribunal heard how school chiefs called a staff meeting and demanded that the 'gutless wonder' responsible for the racist notes own up.

When no-one came forward, they compared the notes to handwriting samples from all staff and called in police, but the culprit was never caught.

Mr Sood, of Nottingham, said he was made redundant from his 22,000 pounds-a-year post in August 2008 after complaining of harassment.

He is suing the school for race discrimination, harassment, unfair dismissal and victimisation.

He is seeking more than 100,000 pounds in compensation for lost earnings, aggravated damages and injury to feelings.

Nine years ago, before he became a teacher, Mr Sood made headlines internationally when New Woman magazine featured him as one of Britain's top 20 hottest men.

Mr Sood, who is still single, turned his back on acting and modelling and joined Christ the King School in September 2006 on its graduate teacher training programme.

He made his explosive racism allegations during preliminary legal arguments at Nottingham employment tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

He allegedly suffered the racist abuse from children in May 2008 and said the school failed to deal with it. Christ the King School strenuously denies Mr Sood's allegations and is vigorously contesting his case, which is due to take place at Nottingham employment tribunal later this year.

Mr Sood, a University of Leicester law graduate, later joined another school, Rushcliffe Sixth Form, in Nottingham as a law department teacher.

He was also made redundant by Rushcliffe in 2010.

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