Meeting of the Parliament 15 November 2017
Alex Cole-Hamilton, in opening the debate, outlined the context. We are in national anti-bullying week and a number of national conversations are taking place about our behaviour towards one another across all walks of life. Today’s debate makes it abundantly clear that we cannot just tackle bullying as it happens but must prevent it from happening in the first place, therefore preventative education is key.
The debate has been quite depressing in many ways. We have heard story after story from every corner of Scotland of so many young people suffering on a daily basis. Admittedly, we live in a far more inclusive society than ever before in terms of gender, sexuality, race, religion and disability, but there remains an undercurrent of discrimination. One of the most startling figures to come out in the debate was from Stonewall Scotland, which says that 90 per cent of LGBT people experienced homophobia, biphobia or transphobia at school—not in the street or on a bus, but in school, the very place where we expect our children to learn and to develop from childhood into adulthood. If nearly half of LGBT students are routinely bullied, how on earth can we expect school to be an environment in which children can learn, develop and grow?
We on the Conservative benches welcome the warm words and the commitments from the Government today but, for some, it will be too little, too late. I agree with my colleague Michelle Ballantyne that one size does not fit all when it comes to tackling bullying. The methods have changed, so we must be flexible and nimble in tackling it. It is evident that education at the earliest appropriate age is the way to tackle intolerance in society, but we will have to be sensitive and deal with challenging issues. Education must be age-appropriate, but we must accept that today’s world is a digital one, a by-product of which is the fact that access to adult themes at a younger age is more prevalent than in our childhoods.
There were excellent contributions from across the chamber. Jeremy Balfour pointed out that disability can come in many forms, including physical, but can also be unseen and mental. He made salient points about the need for improvements in teacher training; high school teachers are specialists, but they are not always specialists in PSE. Our teachers need the support of externally trained experts and consistent teacher training mechanisms to allow them to deliver PSE adequately. Mr Balfour also touched on often overlooked faith-based harassment; where that still exists, it must be stamped out. That is especially important in relation to sectarianism in sport, where the language and imagery of chants have not changed much since my days of educational segregation. It is a blight on our society.
Following Monica Lennon’s sad story about a transgender constituent who suffered daily harassment, I pay tribute to my friends in the TIE campaign for their cross-party efforts to tackle such harassment. Like many third sector charities, they work in schools and talk to teachers and pupils directly and confront prejudice at the coal face. I have signed their pledge and I encourage others to do the same.
Tom Mason rightly emphasised the need for a coherent strategy across the country, so that there can be a clear understanding of what needs to be covered in the classroom. I was struck by Brian Whittle’s positive story about Weebodbighead, who I shall look up on Facebook later, which showed what can be achieved when we get things right—often we speak of what happens when we do not.
Daniel Johnson was right to point to the important issue of waiting times for mental health support for young people in Scotland. Waiting months for specialist help is a dire outcome. Gail Ross made a thought-provoking speech: bullying is not a word; it is an action. Right now, someone will be sitting at home who has just returned from another day at school that was probably another day of hell—and the bullying has probably followed them home, due to social media. Moreover, some of those people will have tried to seek help and found no solace—that should bother us as MSPs.
I ask the Government to consider our proposals to improve PSE to ensure that it is adequately delivered in every school across Scotland. It is remarkable that that is not currently the case. Let us train teachers in how to deliver this subject; enshrine LGBTI subjects in PSE and train teachers how to deliver it; standardise the teaching framework, so that there is consistency across Scotland; and be open minded about the content of PSE, so that it scopes beyond sex, drugs and the internet and looks at all walks of life, including personal finance and citizenship. Let us make speedy progress on the introduction and monitoring of bullying metrics. We can no longer accept the response that those are someone else’s job.
We speak in the political arena about getting it right for every child, but the stories that have been shared in today’s debate make it clear that that still remains an ambition, rather than an achievement.
17:08