British-Indian model sues school for racism

A 35-year-old Indian-origin model-turned language teacher, who was once named one of Britain's top 20 hottest men, has sued his former school after the Indian national flag was allegedly removed from his classroom and dirtied, and he was called a "Paki n*****" and "chicken curry".

According to the Daily Mail, Haresh Sood claimed racist notes and pictures were left for him shortly before he was axed from his post at Nottingham's Christ the King School.
He allegedly suffered the racist abuse from children in May 2008 and says the school failed to deal with it.

Sood said there was a scribbled drawing of his face captioned "Farewell Bollywog!" and another note that read "Good Riddance Turbanator!".

He said his school register was torn and his national flag removed from his classroom and dirtied, the daily reported.

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

A colleague at the school told him to shave an Indian flag into his hair.

The daily said a tribunal heard how school officials called a staff meeting and demanded that the man responsible for the racist notes own up.

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

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

He is now suing the school for 100,000 pounds for race discrimination, harassment, unfair dismissal and victimisation.

In 2003, before he became a teacher, Sood made headlines internationally when New Woman magazine featured him as one of Britain's top 20 hottest men.

He was described as an "artiste, model and singer with great cheekbones" who liked to "seduce women with chocolates and strawberry cake".

Sood, who is still single, left acting and modelling and joined the school in September 2006 in its graduate teacher training programme.

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.