Senior
Conservative George Osborne has announced new plans to do more to address the
problem of homophobic bullying in UK schools.
He said a key part of tackling homophobic bullying is to give teachers and
heads the power to keep order and set clear standards of behaviour in their
schools.
"Under Labour, homophobic bullies excluded from schools can be returned to
the classroom by a bureaucratic appeals panel, and teachers are often unable to
break up violent homophobic bullying because of ‘no touch’ policies that
prevent them from intervening," Mr Osborne said.
"The Conservatives will give headteachers the final say over the exclusion
of homophobic bullies and give teachers the power to stop violent homophobic
incidents."
The Shadow Cabinet members said his party would also change government guidance
on behaviour and exclusions to make it clear that bullying aggravated by
prejudice – including homophobic bullying should result in tougher punishments.
Under the
current rules, a pupil expelled for homophobic bullying could be returned to
their school on appeal by an appeals panel.
Mr Osborne noted this as something that would obviously be extremely upsetting
to their victims.
"By scrapping appeals panels, we will ensure that the final say over
exclusion rests with the heads and governors of a school and their authority
cannot be undermined," he said.
Teachers are often unable to break up violent homophobic bullying because of
the lack of clarity over use of force.
One study showed that half of all schools now have some kind of ‘no touch’
policy which prevents teachers intervening.
Mr Osborne said a Tory Government would change the law to give teachers
"absolute clarity over use of reasonable force" to prevent violence,
and to allow teachers to search for all potentially disruptive items that could
be used to bully pupils.
"We would change government guidance to schools on behaviour and
exclusions to make it clear that non-violent bullying aggravated by prejudice
like homophobia should result in tougher punishments than other forms of
persistently disruptive behaviour."
He said this would include homophobic bullying, as well as bullying on the
basis of gender, race or disability.
"And we believe that all forms of violent bullying should continue to lead
to some form of exclusion."
Mr Osborne added: "We would include a new category in exclusions data
specifically for 'homophobic abuse'."
Sexual misconduct and racial abuse are already included in the Government's
current statistics.