New Petitions

Petition PE668, from Mr Frank Harvey, calls on the Parliament to take the necessary steps to protect children from being bullied by other children in Scottish schools. The petitioner believes that effective action to prevent bullying in schools has yet to be taken and highlights a number of recent cases in which it is believed that bullying led to schoolchildren committing suicide. He argues that every school should employ an extra janitor to patrol the playground and take care of the children; that children who are accused of bullying should be expelled from school until a complaint has been resolved; and that the police should be informed immediately if it is considered that a victim is in any danger. Mr Harvey has supplied additional papers that have been handed round.As committee members will be aware, the Executive is taking a hard line on bullying in schools and has introduced a number of measures that are aimed at tackling it, including monitoring how local authorities are implementing the recommendations of the discipline task force's report on bullying and indiscipline and providing funding for the anti-bullying network, the Scottish schools ethos network and the ChildLine anti-bullying helpline.The previous committee considered two petitions—PE81 and PE412—on bullying in schools and agreed to take no further action, on the basis that the Executive was tackling the problem through a number of initiatives. Committee members will note that the petitioner has submitted a total of 55 petitions on a wide range of subjects, and, although there is no doubt that he is well intentioned in raising issues of concern, the majority of those petitions relate to high-profile issues that are already recognised and being addressed by the Parliament, the Executive or other public bodies.

I was interested in the petition when I read it. In fact, I have done some work on the matter in my constituency. It is true that the Executive has taken on a host of issues—anybody can look on the internet to see the extent of the work that it has undertaken—but one or two questions need to be put to it. How does Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education monitor the work to deal with bullying in schools? In that monitoring, does the inspectorate examine schools' codes of practice and guidance notes to parents and pupils? In dealing with a local secondary school from which the parents of a child had moved their child because of bullying, I examined such documents, which showed me, the parents and my researcher insufficient evidence that matters had been taken on board satisfactorily. Those questions about monitoring by the inspectorate could reasonably be put to the Executive.

I do not necessarily dissent from that view, but the petitioner does not ask us to ask those questions. I accept that the issue is serious, but it could be pursued in other general ways. I do not want to discourage petitions, but I am slightly concerned that this is the 55th petition from Mr Harvey. If we have taken no further action on two previous petitions because the Executive is taking the matter seriously, we need to be consistent and take no further action on this petition.I do not want to discourage petitions, but I wonder whether we could have a word with Mr Harvey about focusing petitions not on general issues about which everybody shares legitimate concerns but on specific matters on which we might make progress. I do not know whether the clerks can do that or whether it is appropriate to write to him.

Helen Eadie has asked us to do something and Jackie Baillie has made a suggestion.

I will focus on the three points that Mr Harvey makes in his petition. Two of them do not have merit, and the other suggestion would be followed anyway. The petition says that every school should employ an extra janitor to patrol the playground. Two schools in my constituency have more than 1,000 children. How can one janitor patrol the playground of such a school, or the corridors when children leave school? That is unrealistic. The petition also says that children who are accused of bullying should be expelled from school until a complaint has been resolved. In this country, people are innocent until they are proved guilty and not the other way round. As for reporting a victim in danger to the police, any teacher or head teacher who was worth his or her salt would do that anyway.I do not think, therefore, that the petition has merit. I am also concerned about the fact that Mr Harvey's letter, which is dated 12 September, quotes an incident about which he read in the Scottish Daily Express on 11 September. The petition seems to be a knee-jerk reaction, and I do not think that what he proposes has merit. For that reason alone, I do not think that the petition should go any further.

I have sympathy with Helen Eadie's general concerns about bullying. We all share those concerns, but our specific job is to address what Mr Harvey is asking us to ask the Executive to do. We must focus on that.

I accept that it is unrealistic to ask for every school to have an extra janitor. That is not the way forward, and there are other issues that need to be addressed. I can ask my constituents who have had to take their child out of school and move them to another school to present their own petition to the Parliament, outlining their specific concerns. If they want to do that, that will be down to my constituents. I have already suggested that to them. The committee can then discuss the subject in that context. I am happy to accept the reservations that colleagues have expressed.

Okay. I seek the committee's agreement to follow Jackie Baillie's suggestion to write to the petitioner, advising him that he must, in future, adhere to the guidance on petitions. We must encourage petitioners to follow the guidance on petitions, and I am not sure that, in submitting his 55 petitions, Mr Harvey has always done so. We can reassure him that we have attempted to address his concerns in other ways before—it is not that we are dismissing his right to petition the Parliament or his concerns. However, the committee has to act appropriately. We can also make the point that, although there is no doubting his good intentions in raising these issues, the majority of his petitions have related to high-profile issues that are already recognised by the Parliament and the Executive. We must highlight to Mr Harvey that we are not dismissing his concerns about the issue, but that the Parliament is already trying to do something about the issue. Is everyone happy with that?Members indicated agreement.