Chris Price #ShutItDown 🇵🇸 🍉

In light of the Bell Review into antisemitism in schools and colleges, let's look at how other groups of children suffer abuse in schools. * Bell Review: A lot has already been said about the flawed methodology and limited amount of data on Jewish children who actually experienced antisemitic abuse; mainly, comments. 29 out of 90, or 32%. Not all of this happened at school; some of it happened on the way to and from school. Most of this would have been directed at Orthodox Jews or those who can be identified as visibly Jewish. However, in school it would be very few. * The Bell survey was of 5000 UCAS students aged 16-19 (Jewish and mostly non-Jewish), and they were asked if they had seen, witnessed or experienced antisemitism. This isn't actually about antisemitism in schools; it is about broader antisemitism in society. * If we posed the same question to 5000 students asking if they had seen or witnessed anti-Islam/Muslim hate, the response would be a ridiculously high number because young people hear it in the media and see it on social media every day. However, that would not be the same as Muslims being abused in schools and colleges because of their race or religion. * So, leaving aside this Bell report, we examined other research about other children and racial or religious abuse. * In a JPR study published in February 2025, only 12% of Jewish parents reported antisemitism in schools. However, when we add figures for outside school and on the way to or back from school, the figure parents reported comes to 23% (including in school: 12%). * If we look at the figure for Muslim children from a government study in 2019, then 21% of Muslim children reported they had been actively bullied because of their religion. Bullying is actually worse than just the odd comment, as it involves sustained or a pattern of abuse. With a school population of over a million, that's a huge number of children. However, since 2019, hatred of Islam and Muslims has grown, and so has this figure. This probably needs updating. * We looked for data on Asian, Black, Chinese and White children in schools who had been bullied because of their race or religion, and there was no data, although there were percentages for those who had been bullied in other ways and felt it was because of their race. * The conclusion is that there was a serious issue of Muslim children being bullied in school because of their religion. Yet no one seems to have addressed this problem. * As for other background children suffering racism in schools, especially black and Asian children, who, because they visibly stand out, would have higher rates in school and on the way to school and back. * No children should suffer abuse or bullying because of their race, religion or other factors in school. Teachers should teach and ensure all are treated equally.