Schools across the north and north-east are dealing with an incident of racism among their pupils every fortnight.
New figures reveal that youngsters are being excluded or disciplined over racist behaviour once every two weeks on average in secondary schools across the Highlands and islands, Moray and Aberdeenshire.
The worrying statistic emerged as a separate report revealed that racism, whether punished or unpunished, is on the increase among Scottish children, with a third experiencing some form of discrimination in their daily lives.
In total, there have been 74 racist incidents recorded in the Highlands and islands, Argyll, Moray and Aberdeenshire since the start of 2014.
And with 32 reports in Moray’s eight secondary schools, racist incidents were found to be more common in the region than the 31 cases reported by all of the 45 academies across the Highlands, Shetland, Orkney, Western Isles and Argyll combined.
A Moray Council spokesman said the figures were due to an “extremely robust and rigorous” system for recording such incidents, and that a focus on awareness raising in its schools had led to a higher number of recorded cases in recent years.
Argyll and Bute Council revealed that at Tobermory High School, the only secondary on the Isle of Mull, a pupil was excluded last year for making intentionally offensive remarks in class in front of a visiting French student.
The pupil reportedly stated that “French people are immigrants and should be in gas chambers”.
Mike Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, said: “One incident is too many and quite clearly schools have a major role to play to ensure young people understand that it’s not just the need for tolerance but the fact we have to work together as human beings.
“I am pleased the incident numbers are low but think they should be even lower.”
In Aberdeenshire, where records showed 11 such incidents since November 2015, a male pupil at one school was reported for making a hand gesture which represented an explosion in front of another pupil and their peers, before asking the pupil if her mother would “cut off her head if she drank alcohol”.
In Moray, one youngster was excluded in 2015 for speaking in a derogatory way about another pupil in relation to their skin colour.
Moray MSP Richard Lochhead said he was “disappointed to learn that there had been an “unacceptable number of racist verbal incidents” in the region’s secondary schools.
The information was provided in response to freedom of information request – but only Argyll and Bute Council specified the schools in which the incidents happened.
A total of 16 racist incidents were recorded in Highland Council schools – including one exclusion – since January 2014.
In Orkney, three incidents were anti-English in nature and another involved racist comments directed towards an Asian pupil over the course of “a few months”.
Shetland Islands Council recorded three incidents – one each in September and November in 2015 and one in January 2016.
A total of seven cases were recorded in Argyll – three at Oban High School, two in Rothesay Joint Campus and one each in Tarbert and Tobermory.
There was one case in the Western Isles during the period.
Aberdeen City Council refused to provide any information, insisting that it would cost too much to collate.
A spokeswoman for Argyll and Bute Council said: “Incidents such as these are extremely rare. Our pupils generally work well together and treat each other with respect and understanding. Any form of racist behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our schools.”
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “The number of racially motivated incidents in Highland schools are very small in comparison to the number of pupils.
“We aim to continue to improve on this situation however and work preventatively wherever possible. This is therefore an area highlighted to staff through equality and diversity training and also a focus for work undertaken with pupils through Personal and Social Education Programmes.”
Andrew Griffiths, head of Primary Education at Aberdeenshire Council, said: “While the number of reported incidents is thankfully small we take the matter very seriously.
“Each of our 173 schools has a robust zero tolerance approach to any racist language or abuse.”
