Meeting of the Parliament 15 November 2017
I have to confess that, when I was sitting on the Equalities and Human Rights Committee and we decided to do an inquiry into this area, I was a bit sceptical. I thought that surely things had moved on since I was at school. However, as we heard the evidence over a number of weeks, like Daniel Johnson, I was shocked, as someone who lives in 21st century Scotland, by how little progress has been made at the grass roots in schools. I say that as the parent of two young children who are starting off their educational career. As they and their contemporaries and my constituents go through school, if their experience is anything like some of the evidence that we heard, we should hang our heads in shame as a society.
The comment, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me,” is perhaps one of the false statements that we need to stop making as a society. Words do affect people, not only when they are said but later in life, and often that experience will shape the person that someone becomes.
I want to pick up on two characteristics of individuals who are bullied and then offer a couple of brief comments. Paragraph 43 of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s report says that
“most of the evidence that exists suggests that disabled children are twice as likely to be bullied at school as non-disabled children”.
That bullying can take place in the classroom, but it is far more likely to happen in the lunch room, in the playground or on Facebook. We need to realise that, if we are truly going to have inclusive education—we had a good debate last week on that—we need to ensure that, whatever their disability, we protect disabled people, particularly those who have mental health issues or disabilities, who often are more likely to be bullied than those with physical disabilities.
We are at an interesting juncture in relation to faith and belief. As faith and belief change in our society and people come to different views and perhaps turn away from traditional religions, we have to ask how a traditional child who believes in Islam, Judaism or Christianity fits into our schools. How do we protect children who have those beliefs and thoughts?
Evidence came from a number of groups that we need to take a holistic approach, which the Scottish Government is working towards. We have to say that all bullying, whatever form it takes, is wrong and we have to work that through our syllabus.
We heard that when incidents of race-based bullying take place, perhaps race-based bullying gets a higher priority in schools, and when there is a drop in that type of bullying, it falls off the agenda a bit and is not taught about as much. There is a danger that if we pick one characteristic over another and say, for example, that disability is more important than race at this time, some groups will end up missing out.
It all starts with what is taught in the classroom, which in turn starts with what teachers are taught in their teacher training. One teacher told us in the committee that they had half a day of training on bullying of disabled children, so if someone happened to have a cold on that day, they would have missed out completely. That was true of training on other characteristics, too. We need to look at what our teachers are being taught.
I welcome the cabinet secretary’s comment about how we record bullying. Most of the evidence that we heard stated that it was not recorded and that lots of incidents were still happening.
We need to see how we can involve and educate parents on this—people like me, who have been away from school for many years. How do I help my children face these issues if they are bullied or, heaven forbid, if they become the bully? As many members have said, we also need to involve the children in our schools—those who face bullying now and those who might face it in the future.
I welcome both reports and all the evidence given to the two committees. As others have said, those who were brave enough to come before our committees and give evidence have started something that will hopefully change our society.
I hope that the message that comes out from the Parliament today and in the months ahead is that bullying is wrong and there is no place for it in 21st century Scotland.
16:27