LGBT+ high school students told to ‘die’ in ‘appalling and terrifying’ graffiti daubed over a Pride flag – Yahoo Eurosport UK
LGBT+ students were told to “die” in “appalling and terrifying” homophobic graffiti daubed over a Pride flag.
Abusive slurs were scrawled on a white board that had a Pride flag projected onto it at Broadland High School in Norfolk, according to the North Norfolk News.
Separately, a student was filmed making vile remarks about gay and trans people. The school has reportedly asked students to delete the recording to prevent it being shared widely.
In an email to the North Norfolk News, a member of the school community said they believed the incidents counted as hate crimes.
They also accused officials at Broadland High School of not taking “appropriate action” in response to the hateful incidents.
The school community member, who has not been named, told the newspaper: “The school has been passive in response to this, with those who filmed it being asked to remove the content so it cannot be shared.
“I personally believe this is appalling and terrifying for the LGBT+ community.”
A spokesperson for the school insisted that the institution took “immediate action” when it received reports of the two anti-LGBT+ incidents.
Anti-LGBT+ hate incident in Norfolk school ‘completely out of line’ with standards
“We have robust reporting in place to ensure everyone’s safety and wellbeing, and so were made aware of an incident on Tuesday which was filmed and photographed and was completely out of line with our standards and expectations,” the spokesperson told the North Norfolk News.
“We took immediate action to deal with the situation and to implement appropriate sanctions for the small number of students involved.”
The school said it will provide “additional education” to students around LGBT+ issues and will inform “appropriate authorities” about the incidents.
“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive, open and accepting school community,” the spokesperson added.
Last year, research form the British LGBT Awards revealed that homophobic and transphobic bullying are alarmingly common in Britain’s schools.
The survey of 4,000 LGBT+ young people aged under 25 found that half had faced abuse from fellow pupils, while just one in four felt comfortable coming out while still in school.
Almost 80 per cent of respondents said they had been victimised with verbal abuse while in school.