Children aged five to go on school 'hate registers'

[TriWooOx]

Quote:PUPILS as young as five will soon be placed on school 'hate registers' for making playground taunts, it emerged last night.

Any form of racist or homophobic bullying will go down on record at the school and the pupil responsible could be monitored throughout their school life.

Details of any incidents, however minor, will then be kept on a database by the local authority and made available to ministers to inform future anti-bullying campaigns.

Children's charities last night expressed concern that youngsters may be criminalised for simple playground banter.
Michele Elliott, of charity Kidscape, said: "Children are being criminalised and singled out from a very early age when they don't know what they're doing."

The extent of the new measures came to light after 10-year-old Peter Drury was told his name would be placed on a register at his primary school in Somerset and his behaviour monitored. It followed an accusation that he called a friend "gay boy".

His mother Penny Drury said she was called into the school and informed the incident would be registered and that her son's file monitored while he remained at Ashcombe Primary School, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

She said: "He doesn't even understand about the birds and the bees, so how can he be homophobic?
"Peter is very naive boy who didn't know what he was doing and is now very upset that he is in trouble."

Many schools already voluntarily record any incidents of racist, homophobic or anti-disability bullying.

But from September ministers plan to make it a statutory duty for all schools to register the incidents and for local authorities to keep an anonymous database of them.

Consultation is underway to decide whether to include homophobic and sexist taunts within the remit. Margaret Morrissey, founder of campaign group Parents Outloud, said: "This is totally appalling. The use of such language is part of the learning process.

"Children need to learn where the boundaries lie. And I very much doubt they understand what they are saying.
"This does not mean that the behaviour shouldn't be challenged.

It must be explained that it is wrong.

But to keep a register that will haunt them for years to come is going far too far and is against all rights."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "Schools should take a common-sense approach to dealing with alleged racist or homophobic incidents by pupils.

"If a young child uses a slur, it should be judged whether or not they understand the meaning of the word and should be told why these words are hurtful as well as being appropriately disciplined.

"If bullying is not dealt with in schools, then this will send a powerful message to children that discrimination is acceptable not only in schools but in society as a whole."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/1616...registers-

[Frozin]

This is just more government wanting to take the individuals right to raise a child away.

[h3rm35]

terrorist watch groups for five year-olds. how sad. It was bad enough when they were mistakenly not allowed to board planes.

Just more proof of the government trying to turn children into sheeple before they even get the chance to question their gvt's actions.

This will lead to nothing but even more rebellion in teen years.

[420trvlr]

Welcome to Amerika comrade.

[Easy Skanking]

(03-07-2010 06:38 PM)420trvlr Wrote:  Welcome to Amerika comrade.

Except that was in the UK.

Not that things aren't headed that way over here....

[420trvlr]

My apologies, I didn't notice that in the article. There is a Somerset, NJ.