Homophobic bullying plaguing schools, says Education Secretary Nicky Morgan

Schools are still being “plagued” by homophobic bullying, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has told a conference on the subject.

Ms Morgan told a conference aimed at tackling homophobic bullying at Brighton College that – while bullying in the school place had decreased – there was growing concern over incidents of cyber-bullying through social media.

“There is a concern that more than one in ten young people have experienced cyber-bullying,” she added.

As a result of bullying, many gay, lesbian and transgender pupils “fall back from school life”, she added. “Many of them avoid school altogether.”

She added that they “tend to choose careers where they will be safe”. “One in three change their career plans as a result of homophobic bullying in school.

“Their priority is not happiness – their priority is safety.”

The bullying ranged from verbal abuse to physical abuse, death threats and assault. It also covered the derogatory use of a term like “gay” in in the playground.

She said it was important to adopt a whole-school approach to eradicating homophobic bullying, adding: “I hope we will see a future where homophobic bullying is abolished for good.”

Richard Cairns, headmaster of Brighton College – the independent school which organised the conference – said playing it safe could mean a girl who was keen on rugby giving up the sport because she was keen to avoid being seen as a lesbian. “To avoid being singled out as a lesbian they will not participate in these activities to avoid being labelled in that way,” he added.

“One girl could say ‘I’m not going to do physics because I would be one of only two girls doing it as a subject,” he added. “You can really restrict or constrict children’s ambitions in that way.”

The same could be true of boys and dancing. As 11 and 12-year-olds going into a secondary school, they did not want to be seen as participating in something which they feared could mark them out as gay. “They might want to hide the fact,” he added.

“It doesn’t happen here but I’ve certainly seen it happen in previous schools. They didn’t dance, didn’t sing because it was seen as a female thing to do.”

Ms Morgan told the conference “playing safe” could mean a boy hiding the fact that he does not like football or a girl deciding against becoming an engineer.

Later former Conservative MP Matthew Parris told the conference he felt that sports stars had a duty to “come out” to provide good role models for other children.