Complaints on bullying and racism on rise at schools

Published on Tuesday 15 May 2007 12:01

COMPLAINTS about bullying and racism have risen significantly in city schools, with an average of more than four incidents a day now being investigated.

High schools and primaries have both seen rises of up to 12 per cent in reported incidents, with alleged bullying and racism both on the up.

Abusive texts and e-mails are believed to form a substantial and growing part of the problem.

The increase in complaints has been put down to the success of a series of initiatives to ensure problems come to light.

But it has sparked calls for more to be done to make children able to stand up to the growing problem of text and internet bullying.

A fall in the number of children looking for support and advice on bullying and racism has also prompted concern.

The biggest rise has been in high schools, where 389 incidents were reported last year. The increase comes after school staff received racism awareness training, guided by advice from Edinburgh and Lothians Race Equality Council (ELREC).

Schools have also launched a series of anti-bulling initiatives, including buddying systems, peer mentoring and post boxes in corridors so complaints can be made anonymously.

However, despite these moves, fears remain of a growing problem of bullying using text messages and e-mails.

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council today called for more to be done to prepare children for the inevitable abuse some will suffer.

Judith Gillespie, development manager at the SPTC, said: "Bullying is impossible to eradicate and often very difficult to identify. If a child is getting bullied by text, how does the school know? Traditional bullying, where it is obvious and physical - schools are very good at dealing with that now.

"But more subversive bullying is very difficult. One thing that is important to do is bully-proof the children themselves. That does not necessarily mean counselling, but rather making them more robust, so that they delete certain text messages and e-mails without reading them because they know who they are from."

Reports of racism in secondary schools are increasing faster than any other kind of harassment - up by 29 per cent to 75 in 2005- 2006.

ELREC said this was down to better teacher training, but called for more to be done to ensure young victims know the culprits have been dealt with.

Nina Giles, director of ELREC, said: "It's not just black and ethnic minority kids, white Scottish kids are also less tolerant now of racist attitudes. That's very positive. I think if racism happened a few years ago more people would have thought it was acceptable, now they know it's not and they will speak to their peers about it."

Concern has also been raised over a fall in the number of children seeking advice and support in relation to bullying.

The number fell from 110 in 2003-2004 to 80 last year, while no children sought support for racism last year, compared to seven and eight in the two previous years.

The city council said the growing number of complaints was a sign that schools were starting to get to grips with the extent of the problem.

A council spokeswoman said: "It's our intention to ensure that incidents are brought out into the open and dealt with in an appropriate manner. It's far better for racism and bullying to be recorded and resolved than to leave them unchecked in schools.

"We are always working towards decreasing incidents of bulling and racism and we believe our schools are increasingly effective in dealing with them."