Bullying of disabled children rife in Scots schools, say experts

BULLYING of disabled children – including physical attacks and name-calling – is “prevalent” in Scottish education, a new report has warned.

The study, for Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, highlighted disabled pupils being excluded from school sports and “stared at in public”.

It said they had “lower expectations” for achieving educational qualifications and faced a lack of job and career opportunities when they left school.

Co-authors Professor Kirsten Stalker, of the Glasgow School of Social Work, and Dr Lio Moscardini, from the University of Strathclyde, said disabled children were also “made to feel different in negative ways” while learning and playing at school.

High living costs, low incomes and poverty were a “major barrier to disabled children”, which the study’s authors said had been “exacerbated by the current financial crisis” and cuts to services. They called for greater “financial support for families with disabled children” and for a high-profile education and awareness campaign promoting disability equality.

There was also “community bullying of the whole family” of pupils with learning disabilities and mental health problems, and that discouraged children from playing outside and getting exercise, the report said.

Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, said the issues highlighted showed some areas of provision for disabled children were “not good enough”.

He said: “We know that many disabled children and young people do not enjoy the same chances as their peers, and too often inclusion remains an aspiration, not a reality.

“There are many aspects to a lack of inclusion, and they take numerous forms and guises in society, but they all have one thing in common: they violate children’s rights.”

The report highlighted cases of disabled children being bullied and of “deliberately excluding the child from conversations or activities”.

It also talked about “name-calling, extracting money or other coveted goods and sometimes physical aggression such as hitting, kicking or pushing the child about”.

The study talked of a lack of sports activities for disabled pupils and gave the example of one school that had “no teams for children with physical impairments and no sign language interpretation for a child who was a member of a football team”.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Bullying in any shape or form is unacceptable, including the bullying of disabled children. The Scottish Government supports work to tackle bullying and funds the national anti-bullying service Respect Me.”