A FURIOUS councillor has slammed schools for scrapping the words "mum and "dad" to avoid discrimination as "raving lunatics".

St Luke's Primary School, Elm Grove Primary School, Carlton Hill Primary School and Saltdean Primary came under fire for the move which was implemented to ensure pupils raised in diverse families are not stigmatised.

Cllr Dawn Barnett slammed schools in Brighton that have culled the words to avoid discriminating against "non-traditional" families.

Cllr Barnett said the policy was "absolutely crazy" and that children were being denied a childhood.

She said: "They're crazy - they're raving lunatics.

"They are called do-gooders that do more harm than good.

"Adults and grownups are what are in the street and don't really know.

"I'm really fed up. What are they trying to do with these children?"

Brighton and Hove City Council said it had not issued any guidance on the matter and schools were free to make their own decisions.

Furious parents were quick to comment on the changes, with one Facebook user claming the "world has gone mad".

Jenny Hills said: "The world’s gone mad, ridiculous, it will always be mum and dad no respect for the parents."

The Argus: Saltdean Primary School Saltdean Primary School

Mark Scott added: "If you ask a child where their 'grownups' are, they might think you are talking about older brothers or sisters, aunts, uncles etc, but not their mum or dad."

While Ashley Waite added: "What drugs are these so called educators sniffing?

"They seem to have a warped sense of the world and hell bent creating a vacumous one.

"Well enough is enough with this utter tripe stick to the curriculum given to you or get another job.

"Politicians need to find a backbone and weed this problem out of the system."

St Luke's Primary School in Brighton states on its website: "We use the term ‘grown ups’ as a general term rather than ‘mums and dads’ to refer to children’s significant adults so that children who live with one parent."

While Elm Grove Primary School maintains in its Equalities Statement: "We try to talk about our 'grownups' rather than our 'mums and dads' to acknowledge the different family groupings our pupils live in."

The guidance to stop using the words "mum" and "dad" is also upheld in the school vision statement of Carlton Hill Primary School, which reads: "We try to talk about our 'grownups' rather than our 'mums and dads' to acknowledge the different family groupings our pupils live in."

Saltdean Primary stated on its Equality and Diversity Policy that it prefers to use another term altogether.

It reads: "Language- we use the terms parents/carers rather than 'mum' and 'dad' as we recognise that our families are made up of many different people.

"When children start at Saltdean, they discuss and share what makes a family for them.

"This allows children to see different family dynamics than their own but also helps them to recognise that it is the relationships that make a family."

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said: "Our advice to schools is that it is of course fine to use words such as mum, dad or grandma if staff know a child's family circumstances.

"But we have a very diverse school population and we want all members of the school community to feel included.

"In cases where a child's family is unknown the term grown-up or grown-ups can include, for example, grandparents, foster carers, families with same sex parents and single parent families.

"Schools make their own decisions about their equality policies."