Children face police quiz ...for playground insults

Nurseries and primaries in hate crime inquiries

HUNDREDS of Scottish school pupils have been investigated by police for hate crimes, with at least four incidents in nurseries.

Reports against pupils hit an all-time high last year, with an average of one a day.

New figures show officers have been called at least four times to nursery schools to investigate a potential hate crime. And complaints recorded in primary school classrooms have tripled inside five years.

But critics yesterday said the ‘Victorian’ approach risked criminalising young children too young to know any better.

Hate crimes are classed as being motivated by malice or ill will towards another person because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, disability or gender identity.

Information obtained by the Scottish Daily Mail shows there have been 605 incidents recorded by Police Scotland at schools and colleges since 2014.

One in six was made in a primary school, while half of the complaints were made from ‘academies’ and ‘secondary schools’.

Teachers’ leaders say the rise in reports to police followed more robust procedures within schools to deal with bullying.

However, Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘We shouldn’t be criminalising children when all they really need is a gentle correction. Young people are not aware of what they are saying or the consequence of that so it’s a mistake to judge them by the same standards as adults.

‘Education leaders need to learn that labelling a school child as a criminal for innocently saying something in the playground is only going to lead to that child then cargroups

‘Preparing young people for life’

rying a sense of guilt, or grievance, through to adulthood.

‘It’s potentially damaging and shows how Victorian the education system of this country still is.’

Figures released through the freedom of information act show the majority of complaints involving primary school children were made about race.

Former teacher Jim Thewliss, general secretary of industry association School Leaders Scotland, said: ‘It’s concerning that the number of hate crimes has grown, but schools aren’t there simply to educate young people to pass their exams, we are preparing young people for life in the 21st century and understanding that hate crime is not acceptable is part of that.’

He said the higher figures were likely to reflect ‘the fact that young people are much more aware that reporting them is important’.

A spokesman for teacher’s union EIS said pupils should be given support to address prejudice.

Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative education spokesman, said: ‘l am sure all schools across Scotland are keen to work with families and police to ensure our younger age understand the intolerable damage hate crime can cause.’

Police Scotland last year launched a hate crime awareness campaign aimed at teenagers after figures showed that, of the 5,889 hate crime files created in 2016/17, more than 15 per cent involved a perpetrator aged between 11 and 15.

Superintendent Tim Ross, of Safer Communities, said: ‘We take reports of hate crime very seriously and will fully investigate every hate crime and incident reported to us.

‘We also work with schools and other organisations to educate young people on the issue of hate crime and ensure they understand the significant consequences for both victims and perpetrators.

‘We would encourage anyone who has been the victim of hate crime in any form to come forward to us.’

OF course pupils and parents should be entitled to expect that schools are safe spaces, where violence and bullying are never tolerated.

Teachers have a key role in ensuring this is so but it is, perhaps, even more important that young people are taught at home about what constitutes unacceptable behaviour.

However, even when parents and teachers are vigilant, problems do arise. Conflict in the classroom and playground is a fact of life.

When things do go wrong, it is right that schools can impose sanctions. But can the involvement of the police in such incidents be either proportionate or wise?

Hundreds of pupils – some in nursery and primary schools – have been investigated by Police Scotland for alleged hate crimes.

We fear that criminalising children instead of educating them about the impact of their behaviour may escalate existing problems.

And our overburdened police surely have enough to do without adding playground bust-ups to the long list of issues they must deal with.