‘Schools Out’ Workshop.

The headline figures in the Stonewall ‘Education for All – the School Report’ are well let’s just say dire and keep it polite.

If this was an area of business that the Police were responsible for then I have no doubt questions would be asked ‘in the house’. The report is about homophobic bullying in our schools, although a national report I see no reason why that bullying should not stop at the borders of the 3 counties we Police. Here are some of those figures;

• 65% of LGB pupils have experienced direct bullying, this number increases to 75% for those attending faith schools.
• 98% hear the phrases ‘you’re so gay’ or ‘that’s so gay’.
• 97%hear words like ‘queer’ and ‘poof’.
• Only 23% have been told by their schools that homophobic bullying is wrong.

I suppose we could have mumbled something about schools ‘getting their acts together’ and carried on with the job in hand. The problem is we can’t, homophobic bullying leads to assaults, truancy and in extreme cases suicide, all of which will involve the Police. I felt that the TVGPA could not walk away from this; two of our objectives are around improving relations with the LGB community and helping TVP operationally.

We made the decision to run a workshop which would involve Police officers and PCSO’s involved in schools, youth workers, Local Authorities and of course the schools themselves. Stonewall were keen to support the initiative, Chris Gibbons their Senior Education Officer came along to present on the findings of the report and what Stonewall were doing about it. The 35 delegates were then asked, having heard the Stonewall presentation what their next steps will be.

We also took the opportunity to use a new piece of equipment called ‘Qwizdom’ which will be used shortly for Street Craft training. Using Qwizdom we asked the delegates to vote electronically and prioritise the next steps in order of importance. We will put post the results on the website

It was really gratifying to be at Oxford Pride the next day and be approached by someone who was at the workshop; thanking us for the workshop and telling me that as a direct result of her attendance at the workshop she had already arranged an meeting with all the movers and shakers in Oxfordshire to address the problem of homophobic bullying in their schools.

I hope you will agree with me that this demonstrates the positive contribution that we in TVGPA can make.