- Conference
- 2014 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 1 October 2013
- Decision
- Carried
In Teesside, which is south of the Northern Region, schools reported and had to deal with 359 racist incidents in the last academic year. In Middlesbrough there was 191 racist school based incidents alone.
A recent survey by the VOICE newspaper showed that more than 80% of their readers claimed to have experienced racism when at school.
In Peterborough, primary schools saw the number of racist incidents double within one year. 167 racist confrontations were recorded by Peterborough Council, varying from name calling to physical assaults.
Conference notes that most if not all schools are obliged to have Equality and Diversity policies, Racial Harassment policies and other policies that should act to provide guidance and purpose to dealing with racially aggravated incidents in the school, but these do not appear to be enough. We know that the impact of non adherence to policies and the tacit acceptance of racism in schools can blight the opportunity to progress for black students of all ages.
We instruct the National Black Members Committee to undertake:
1)Work with the relevant UNISON officers and our members in the Higher Education and Education services to look at how policies that govern behaviour in schools can be improved in relation to racist incidents and behaviour
2)To draw up recommendations that can be tested in educational establishments in the UK
3)To revise guidelines and policies to include a more robust approach to dealing with racist incidents and behaviour in schools
4)To highlight progress in all UNISON media and publications
5)To report back to UNISON Black Members Conference 2015.