Cllr Steve Radford
Leader of The Liberal Party
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG
0151 259 5935
07920090322
Dear Editor
Clllr Clein believes I am being a little unfair in critising the City Council and others of burying the Stombreak Report, (Liverpool Echo Letters Page Monday 13th August)
The fact is since the report had been sent to the council it was over 5 months before the report was even tabled at a council meeting - hardly an outburst of urgency or transparency. I received my copy only after writing over the head of the council to the Information Commissioner.
At the Education Committee,( now called Children's Services), Council officers published a one page sanitised response to the research rather than the full research itself.
It is ironical that the same day Cllr Clein would have us believe he is tackling homophobia in schools, several pages earlier we read the horrendous account of Catholic Education Authorities taking legal advice over the potential removal of a meticulous Head teacher with an excellent record of achievement over a decade in my own Tuebrook for the "crime" of having registered his civic partnership with his long term boyfriend.
For too long Education officers have been frightened of tackling homophobia for fear of upsetting the Catholic Hierarchy .
Stormbreak showed analysis of youngsters who had left education in the previous two years.
When any gay and lesbian young people can tell researchers that they were treated as the problem rather than the victims of bullying and prejudice ,then Cllr Clein I am not being unfair, I just want the problem of homophobia in schools outed.
When national research shows 40% of young gay men in the school age group seriously consider suicide and many actually commit suicide, then its time all people of genuine Christian concern demand change not silence
Cllr Steve Radford
Leader of The Liberal Party Group
----------this is the letter sent by Cllr Clein we are responding to :--------
Your letters, 13th August 2007
Aug 13 2007 by Liverpool Echo
Fighting the bullies
I AM first to agree that there is a problem with homophobic bullying in schools nationwide and Liverpool schools are not exempt from that.
However, I feel Cllr. Steve Radford is being a little unfair to the city council in accusing us, along with other agencies, of burying the recent Stormbreak report which highlighted the problem and implying that we are not tackling this issue. We are.
Our recently launched Anti-Bullying Strategy specifically states in relation to homophobic bullying that, if this is the perceived basis of a bullying incident, then it must be treated as such by the school concerned and dealt with robustly.
Cllr. Radford made representations about this during the consultation on the draft strategy and we responded to his concerns. Our 2006 baseline audit (to be repeated annually) identified that 8% of bullying incidents were related to sexuality, so we have no illusions about the scale of the problem.
All forms of bullying are unacceptable in Liverpool schools, especially homophobic and racist bullying, and must be dealt with effectively by all concerned. That is the message the council is consistently giving out.
We are determined to make this sort of incident a thing of the past as soon as possible.
Cllr. Paul Clein, executive member for children’s services, Liverpool city council
