Homophobia ‘rife’ in Luton schools
NEARLY all teachers have witnessed homophobic abuse in Luton schools with many members of staff admitting to having been subjected to taunts themselves, according to a new survey.
The National Union of Teachers surveyed all Luton secondary schools as well as the town’s Sixth Form College in the spring as part of the Prevelance of Homophobia survey and found that a staggering 94.5 per cent of teachers had seen or heard a homophobic incident at least on a termly basis.
A further 56 per cent had seen or overheard homophobic abuse in the classroom either every day or at least once a week.
Nearly a third of all teachers questioned said that they had been the victim of anti-gay abuse at least once this school year with 82 per cent believing that homophobia is a serious issue in our schools and more than half welcoming the idea of whole school training to tackle the problem.
The survey is set to be officially launched at Luton Central Library today (Wednesday).
National Union of Teachers President and Equalities Officer Tony Fenwick said: “These results, awful as they are, are no better or worse than elsewhere. The purpose is not to embarrass Luton schools in particular but to demonstrate the seriousness of homophobia in our schools generally.
“The ubiquitous use of the word “gay” to mean “bad” or “of inferior quality” too often goes unchallenged, and if it remains unchallenged pupils will think that it’s acceptable. If that’s acceptable then they think it’s acceptable to isolate and bully someone because they think he’s gay or she’s a lesbian. Another thing is that you don’t have to be gay or lesbian to be a victim of homophobic bullying.
“Many homophobic incidents would be called hate crimes if they took place outside of school and if homophobia goes unchallenged that is child abuse.”
The LEA is already a member of the Stonewall Education Champions Programme, but education chiefs welcomed the results of the survey.
Martin Pratt, corporate director children & learning at Luton Borough Council said: “In Luton we recognise that homophobia is an issue which should be actively addressed and therefore we welcome this survey as a way of advancing our understanding of the current situation and prompting us to
take action to improve things in the future.”
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Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
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Paul R
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 06:30 PMAnd you've just reaffirmed my belief that some people will excuse almost anything rather than be accused of racism. Google this "Muslims in Britain have zero tolerance of homosexuality, says poll."
Lutonsteve
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 09:55 AMI agree with Scrumptious. This problem is not down to Muslims. I went to a Catholic secondary school and even ten years ago (when I left) the word 'gay' was constantly used as a derogatory term - there weren't any Muslims at my school. I'm not sure that any religion is particularly tolerant of homosexuality Paul R - few less so than many demonations of Christianity, particularly Catholicism. Why on earth you've felt the need to turn a story about homophobia into an opportunity to have a pop at Muslims is a bit beyond me. You have just managed to prove my impression that you are an absolute idiot though Paul R - well done.
Scrumptious
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 06:48 AMThe same could be said for Christianity as the Bible is hardly a liberal tome on such matters. It's not right to single out Islam as being the source of problems. It's the way these things are taught in schools that count - if there are cases where teachers don't understand what the kids are saying, then the headteacher ought to get a grip. There are a range of interpretations of the Koran, including more liberal ones. It does no good at all to assume, as Paul R seems to, that all Muslims believe the same thing. They don't.
Paul R
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 07:50 PMI wonder what the result would have been if The National Union of Teachers had the guts to ask teachers in Luton how often they hear the word "kuffar" used in their school. I doubt many of them even know what it means. The so-called religion of peace teaches that homosexuals should be killed, and that people who don't believe in Islam are the worst kind of creatures and will burn in hell. Who's going to tackle that?
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