General Chat

I am horrified to discover that children, below the age of 10, who are below the age of criminal responsibility can be place on a "Hate Register" in the UK for remarks made at school that are considered to racial, homophobic or targeted at people with disabilities.

My family do not have a racist bone in our body - whilest we are hetrosexual - we accept people that aren't.

So when my five year old exclaims "Mummy, that lady has a brown face!!" in front of the first Indian person she has noticed.

or / cheeky monkey to the Indian Shop Keeper - when he played a trick on her.

Why should innocent remarks land her on a register that will tag her with racists and homophobics?

When my daughter is playing trick on me I often call her a cheeky monkey - because in my language it is a phrase for a mischievious person.

Will the politically correct brigade back off and let me do my job as a parent. I will soon correct her when it is necessary and I would expect teachers to do the same. Children do not always appreciate the effect their behaviour has on others. They learn by having clear boundaries and guidance - but this should be at an individual level - not a one size fits all attitude.

(Oh - and yes some of us do have brown faces - children say what they see. It is not a racial remark - simply an observation)

Yes, I KNOW IT'S THE MAIL

Heads will be forced to list children as young as five on school 'hate registers' over everyday playground insults.

Even minor incidents must be recorded as examples of serious bullying and details kept on a database until the pupil leaves secondary school.

Teachers are to be told that even if a primary school child uses homophobic or racist words without knowing their meaning, simply teaching them such words are hurtful and inappropriate is not enough.

Instead the incident has to be recorded and his or her behaviour monitored for future signs of 'hate' bullying.

The accusations will also be recorded in databases held by councils and made available to Whitehall and ministers to help them devise future anti-bullying campaigns.

The scale of the effort to stop children using homophobic or racist language was revealed after the parents of a ten-year-old primary school pupil in Somerset, Peter Drury, were told that his name would be put on a register and his behaviour monitored while he remained at school.

The boy was reported after he called a friend 'gay boy'. His parents fear the record of homophobic bullying will count against him throughout his school career and even into adulthood.

In another incident last year a six-year-old girl, Sharona Gower, was reported for 'racist bullying' at her school near Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

Sharona was chased by two 11-year-old girls, one of whom taunted her that she had chocolate on her face.
The six-year-old responded to one of the girls, who was black: 'Well, you've got chocolate on yours.'

Many schools nationwide have already followed advice that they should record incidents of alleged racist, homophobic or anti-disability bullying.

One report last year by the Manifesto Club civil liberties think-tank said that 40,000 children each year are having racist charges added to their school records.

But ministers aim to make reporting of supposed 'hate taunting' a legal requirement for every school, primary as well as secondary, and every local authority across the country from the beginning of the new school year in September.

Why aren't the teachers just having a quiet word with the pupil and parents?

Sue

What is it supposed to achieve exactly?xx

Schools are introducing a 'Hate Register'. Children make innocent observations - it is adults that percieve they are racial or homophobic. THE SCHOOL and PARENTS should challenge childrens language and not let the nanny state dictate from a distance.

Heaven knows!!! If children are using phrases in all innocence why not explain the meaning and ask them to stop rather than blighting their school records for life..

Sue

Unbelievable. How much will this little exercise cost exactly?

Surely there must be higher priorities in education than this?

I'm all for stamping out bullying and racism in schools but really !!! There has to be a more sensible and cost effective way of achieving it ! what an absolute waste of resources and money.

Nice one Ed Balls !

Elizabeth, your child is 5 and never seen anyone before who isnt "white" has she never been out?

If i've read this wrong i apolgise, but surely she must see different races in school?

Yes, children are all innocent.

Children never bully other children. Why, there are not constant threads at this very website about bullying. Nooo. Never happens.

Oh, I know. It happens, but it's never racists or homophobes doing the bullying. Children who are members of racial or sexual minorities are never bullied because of their skin colour or ethnic background, or their sexual orientation. Nooo. That doesn't happen.

Have I got it now?

It won't. It will simply create a problem. As a person who is not racist or homophobic I will be very angry that my child it being labeled. If she genuinely used this language in a way that was intended to bully I would be sharp to pull her up on it.

I love learning about other peoples cultures - (an I have Ancestors from India) - no one should view my comments are racially or homophobically motivated and they are not intend to offend. I am simply opening up a debate that many are afraid to do - as ALL cultures should respect our way of life too who live in the UK. It should be mutual.

Children are influenced by their peers - of course inappropriate behaviour should be challenged. (Start with you Janey)

Janey where has anyone said that children don't bully other children?

Of course it can happen - I never said it didn't. Simply that innocent remarks can also be misinterpreted at this age.

Alko,

My children had only ever seen one black person who happened to be my personal GP until I took them to London when they were 6,7 and 8. When they had previously visited they were babies/toddlers.

I had to gag them as they just spoke as they saw and that included every ethnicity. They were absolutely fascinated as they were just used to white Welsh and sheep!!

Sue

Alko

She was five - it's not that she hadn't see anyone with different coloured skin before. Simply, that it was the first time she had really noticed it and considered things.

Bloody hell supercrutch, where do you live, on another planet, never seeing a coloured face until you went to London......LOL

Don't laugh George it's true...lol rural Wales in the 80s wasn't exactly the stuck in the middle ages but close enough :-)) Our neightbours (in their 70s) had never been further than Builth Wells and that was only once a year for the Royal Welsh show.

Sue

My son is often 'accosted' ( bit of an overstatement but I can't think of another appropriate word lol) on his paper round by a few kids who will insist on calling him "gay boy", as far as I know / he knows, he's not gay ...(not that interested either way at the minute, he's in love with electronics lol) ... he doesn't really takke any notice,but it does seem to not really be a 'homophobic' insult as such more a word lots of youngsters throw about at anyone they don't know...or do know come to that...

we now live in a multi-cultural area ( as opposed to a small village with no-one of a different 'colour' ) and there is a definite sense of rascism being alive and well, but I find it is mostly older people...like the taxi driver who commented yesterday "where are all the english, you don't see many do you" !

I think personally that a 'register' of almost any type that potentially pigeonholes a child for the whole of its school life is dubious, whether that is a record of words they may use unknowingly because they have heard them elsewhere , ( till hopefully taught differently!) or simply that they didn't pass SATS at age 7.

I cannot believe that wherever you live in any country, no children see anyone different in this day and age, shops. schools, the street your walking down.

Sorry but i cant buy that,

Not being nasty Supercrutch but i take it wales got no black sheep, good grief!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alko, twenty years ago i had just moved to a small welsh village, and started at college in the nearby town, one of the first students I met there was from the same village, he was mixed race welsh/african and on being introduced he said 'Hi I'm the only coloured person in the village, they couldn't cope with more than one!" Even now I think there are only two or three people of any other race than welsh/english there.

The problem with this "hate register" is that all child will be placed on the register without the opportunity to explain. Innocent remarks will automatically be judged as guilty and there is no appeal to have the name removed from the register when the decision was incorrect.

Restorative justice would have been a far better approach - and tackle any problems at an early age more effectively.

Schools and parents should be roped in to address the matter through acceptable behaviour agreements.

Lets not fall out Janey - I just get tired of people in Ivory towers taking my parental responsibilities away, creating bizzare health & safety legislation that actually make matters worse and taring all children with the same brush.

Alko, in Sue's defense, she did say it was in the 80's. Her kids are grown up now...while you are saying 'in this day and age'. In some rural areas of the country, non-european immigrants were not often seen. I'll add also that until the last 10 years or so, the part of rural Cambridgeshire I grew up in only saw black or asian people because of the American Airbases in the area....

Janey, I think what Elizabeth is trying to express is the fear, natural in any parent of their child, particularly such a young child, being labelled unjustly because of an innocent and often used phrase, which was not intended as malicious.

Yes children bully other children. Some do even pick on others because they are different....and that is the point. DIFFERENT. Not black, asian, gay, disabled.....DIFFERENT. That's how kids are. What adults have to do is learn to differentiate between malicious intent, which is present in some children, and innocent remarks or phrases which are present in most.