Racism complaints in Bradford schools revealed (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Racism complaints in Bradford schools revealed

11:10am Monday 30th January 2012 in News By Hannah Baker

Racism is the biggest type of bullying at schools in Bradford accounting for 75 per cent of incidents during the last academic year, it has been revealed.

A total of 344 bullying incidents were reported by schools in the district between September, 2010, and July, 2011, of which 260 were deemed to be racist, figures obtained by the Telegraph & Argus through a Freedom of Information request show.

Last term, from September to December, racist incidents accounted for more than half of the 113 recorded bullying incidents.

Other types of bullying reported by schools during this period include incidents relating to disability, family nationality or lifestyle, homophobia, gender and religion.

Councillor Ralph Berry, Bradford Council’s executive member for children and young people’s services, said: “There’s been a general move to address these issues clearly at the earliest possible opportunity.

“That’s resulted in a better focus on recording of incidents. I don’t know whether that means there are more. I think it’s extremely important bullying incidents are reported properly.”