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The quality of anti-bullying policies "varies wildly" and many schools do not mention homophobic bullying at all
Homophobic bullying not being tackled
Homophobic bullying not being properly tackled in schools
Homophobic and cyber-bullying are not being properly tackled in schools due to a lack of clear government guidance, a leading academic has claimed, and he called on ministers to offer more support at local level to ensure a consistent policy on the issue.
According to the newspaper SecEd, Professor Peter Smith, head of the Unit for School and Family Studies at
At last week's Psychology and Anti-social Behaviour in Schools conference at the
“At secondary level, 100 per cent should deal with homophobia, but at the moment we're some way short of that.”
Prof Smith's own research showed that homophobic bullying was mentioned in 33 per cent of secondary schools' policies in 2002, rising to 46 per cent in 2008.
Cyber-bullying was mentioned by 52 per cent in 2008 compared to 11 per cent in 2002.
"As for cyber-bullying, the problem here is that schools do not always update their policies often enough, so more modern forms of bullying are not addressed," he said.
He added: "I think there is a role for national government to play, perhaps offering advice on formulating an effective policy, and making sure that the quality of support at local level is consistent."
But a spokesman for Stonewall said its own research suggested the problem was more widespread:
"We have found that only a quarter of schools' anti-bullying policies say homophobic bullying is wrong. However, in schools that have said it's wrong, gay young people are 60 per cent more likely not to get bullied.
"We work with schools, local authorities and young volunteers to ensure that more schools have a written policy on homophobic bullying - because we know this helps to tackle this widespread problem."
