Schools ‘should disclose if their staff have extremist pasts’

PARENTS have no idea if teachers and community leaders are “dangerous terrorists” and must be given powers to ask about their pasts, a former antiextremism worker in Batley warns.

The former education officer in the West Yorkshire town, where protesters demanded the sacking of a teacher for showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, has called for parents to have the right to know if adults working with children hold extremist views.

Matthew Dryden, who worked as the Prevent education officer for Kirklees council until January, said: “Extremists are actively targeting children in our communities, attempting to radicalise them into extreme beliefs and ultimately terrorism.

“Many parents will be unaware that those with access to their children – including those in positions of trust – will be avowed, dangerous terrorists.”

Mr Dryden has proposed a Terrorism and Extremism Disclosure Scheme (TEDS) to allow parents to ask police and official bodies to disclose any information they hold on an individual’s race hate or terror-related convictions.

He says this would give parents and guardians the information required to protect their children from being radicalised by adults such as teachers, community leaders and youth workers.

The scheme would allow the disclosure to parents by police, under existing powers, of an individual’s terrorist and racially or religiously motivated criminal history “where they may pose a safeguarding risk to their child”.

Mr Dryden said: “The authorities must empower friends and family and community sectors to reject all forms of radicalising and extremist influences, and safeguard their children from being drawn into terrorism.

“Successful disclosure could include notification of a subject’s terrorism and racially or religiously motivated criminal offending history.”

Mr Dryden, who has also worked on Government’s anti-radicalisation programmes, said there is an urgent need for such a measure, with a 10 per cent increase in referrals to the Prevent programme in the year ending March 2020 and a doubling in individuals under 18 being convicted of terrorism offences in the year ending September 2020.

He says his proposals – which have been submitted to Home Office officials – would address the reluctance of some family members to report their children to Prevent and allow them to limit their contact with extremists.