School removes gay bullying site
A school internet chat room has been removed after complaints that it was being used to organise bullying campaigns.
Parents of pupils at Holy Rood High in Scotland, complained to teachers about the contents of the site which included lists of the ugliest schoolchildren and suspicions of homosexuality amongst classmates.
A councillor has called for more action to tackle the problem, education leader, Ewan Aitken told Scotland’s Evening News, “I was made aware of the website and made sure the school knew about it. It sounded inappropriate to me and had to come down. I was told the school was involved in shutting it down.
“I would expect any school – whether its internet bullying or another brand – to take any action it can to deal with it.”
One parent who chose to remain anonymous said: “Basically, all the bullying that was going on at school was continuing at night on this website. One child has not come back to school because he was made fun of on the forum. I felt so sorry for him.”
“That’s the sort of thing that will make some children’s lives desperate and miserable.”
The city council has since installed “electronic investigators” on school computers to monitor the use of them by pupils but admit they have no control on the usage after school.
However, they say they are powerless to control children’s use of computers after school.
A council spokeswoman said: “Parents approached the school about a website. The school identified the pupil who had set it up and told them it was not appropriate.”
The school reacted in a statement which said: “The school takes all incidents of bullying extremely seriously.”
