Gay taunts 'rife' in schools, say teachers
Homophobia is widespread in Lancashire's schools, according to the county's teachers.
A new survey carried out by the National Union of Teachers reveals that more than half of teachers who responded claimed to have come across homophobic abuse in their school on a regular basis.
For some this was a daily or weekly occurrence.
And it was not just pupils using the word 'gay' as abuse, with nearly a quarter (23.5%) of teachers saying they have observed or overheard specific pupils regularly being the subject of homophobic abuse, discrimination or bullying.
But the findings show that teachers feel powerless to tackle the problem with pupils, despite government guidance being sent out on an almost annual basis.
A small percentage of teachers, 3.5%, said they were subjected to regular homophobic abuse by pupils.
The survey showed that 80% of teachers felt it was a serious issue in their schools with more than half of them asking for help and training in dealing with the it.
The NUT Prevalence of Homophobia Survey was released to mark anti-bullying week and has been applauded by the county's education authority.
Lancashire NUT's assistant divisional secretary, Neil Hancox said, "If our survey had been a report on gender or race discrimination, most people would be horrified by the findings. In the same way, we must not, and will not accept this homophobia in schools."
County secretary Ken Cridland added: "With recent serious violent homophobic attacks by young people in the North West, this is an issue which must not be ducked by schools. In some cases, it is actually a matter of life and death."
Jeff Evans, regional equality rep describe homophobic bullying as "a hate crime" and added: "These children are the adults of the future.
They are going into school and hearing this abusive language which is not being challenged.
Teachers are saying it is not acceptable. What they are saying is give us the tools and we'll deal with it. If we get it right a that age, we will have much happier children."
Neil Scanlan, Lancashire County Council's head of alternative and complementary education and also chairman of the Children and Young People Directorate's anti-bullying Strategy Group, said the council "fully supported" the NUT on the issue and would be working with it to deal with it.
Avis Gilmore, NUT regional secretary said, "We are now working towards a comprehensive survey for the North West of England as we believe that the survey evidence already seen in Lancashire could sadly be replicated elsewhere."
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