Today’s school bullies are tomorrow’s street thugs

The Community Security Trust publishes figures for antisemitic incidents every six months. We have by now all grown so used to the inexorable rise in numbers that, appalling as they may be, the statistics no longer shock. This week’s report from the Henry Jackson Society, however, into incidents in secondary schools, is deeply alarming. Many of us assume that school is a safe place for children where incidents of antisemitic bullying and abuse are dealt with in accordance with the basic rules of school life. That assumption appears to be naïve in the extreme. The report shows that antisemitic incidents in secondary schools have trebled over the past five years — from an already high base. A total of 1,020 incidents were reported between 2017 and 2022, 79 of which were serious enough to involve the police. Perhaps more worrying even than the actual numbers is the revelation that fewer than one in 20 schools has any policy to deal with antisemitism. Only 47 schools were found to have any guidance to direct how teachers respond to antisemitic bullying, or even to describe what form it can take.

Many of us naïvely assume that school is a safe place for children where antisemitic bullying is dealt with

As a country, we pride ourselves on our Holocaust education programme. But the finding that much of the bulling takes place in the immediate aftermath of such lessons is a salutary reminder that education can only get you so far. Teachers need to understand the nature of antisemitic abuse and schools need to develop firm and clear protocols to deal with it. This is not some optional extra. It should be as fundamental as the policies that do exist to deal with other forms of abuse. Today’s antisemitic school bullies are tomorrow’s street thugs.