Tories 'Tackle Homophobic Bullies'

Senior Conservative George Osborne has announced new plans to do more to address the problem of homophobic bullying in UK schools.

He said a key part of tackling homophobic bullying is to give teachers and heads the power to keep order and set clear standards of behaviour in their schools.

"Under Labour, homophobic bullies excluded from schools can be returned to the classroom by a bureaucratic appeals panel, and teachers are often unable to break up violent homophobic bullying because of ‘no touch’ policies that prevent them from intervening," Mr Osborne said.

"The Conservatives will give headteachers the final say over the exclusion of homophobic bullies and give teachers the power to stop violent homophobic incidents."

The Shadow Cabinet members said his party would also change government guidance on behaviour and exclusions to make it clear that bullying aggravated by prejudice – including homophobic bullying should result in tougher punishments.

Under the current rules, a pupil expelled for homophobic bullying could be returned to their school on appeal by an appeals panel.

Mr Osborne noted this as something that would obviously be extremely upsetting to their victims.

"By scrapping appeals panels, we will ensure that the final say over exclusion rests with the heads and governors of a school and their authority cannot be undermined," he said.

Teachers are often unable to break up violent homophobic bullying because of the lack of clarity over use of force.

One study showed that half of all schools now have some kind of ‘no touch’ policy which prevents teachers intervening.

Mr Osborne said a Tory Government would change the law to give teachers "absolute clarity over use of reasonable force" to prevent violence, and to allow teachers to search for all potentially disruptive items that could be used to bully pupils.

"We would change government guidance to schools on behaviour and exclusions to make it clear that non-violent bullying aggravated by prejudice like homophobia should result in tougher punishments than other forms of persistently disruptive behaviour."

He said this would include homophobic bullying, as well as bullying on the basis of gender, race or disability.

"And we believe that all forms of violent bullying should continue to lead to some form of exclusion."

Mr Osborne added: "We would include a new category in exclusions data specifically for 'homophobic abuse'."

Sexual misconduct and racial abuse are already included in the Government's current statistics.

(PR/BMCC)