It goes without saying that schools should be places that promote tolerance and understanding, and that there is no room for racist views in such organisations. However, the decision of the government not to ban teachers who are members of the British National party (BNP) or other groups that may promote racism is a welcome glimmer of common sense in an otherwise increasingly frustrating political landscape.
School are havens of fairness and inclusivity and only a handful of cases have come to light of teachers with BNP membership or extremist views. It goes without saying that young people should not be subject to racist views in the classroom, but a blanket ban surely falls into the category of sledgehammer to crack a nut.
The vast majority of teachers and staff have no hidden agenda, put the interests of their students first, and concentrate on teaching and providing a role model for widely accepted standards of behaviour.
Schools already do an excellent job of making sure that those who hold discriminatory views are not welcome. Each school has a set of values and a strong ethos. In many cases these are explicitly set out in a policy or document which includes reference to all staff having a commitment to treat all members of the school community with tolerance and respect and to promote community cohesion more widely. As part of recruitment processes, a school will use this policy to check that prospective employees agree with its ethos and to screen out those who are not able to support it.
Likewise, the general injunction that schools and teachers should not promote particular positions – political, religious, or discriminatory – continues to work well, as do the powers schools have to enforce it.
Disciplinary procedures are in place to deal with teachers or other staff who are overtly or covertly racist, and schools can dismiss staff for this when appropriate. In the case of teachers, dismissal is followed by referral to the General Teaching Council and can lead to the person being barred from teaching. There is no reason to change processes that work well and can be used to deal with the rare cases where trust is betrayed.
Of course it is right that teachers and others should be forbidden in schools to promote any contentious position. However, open discussion of difficult topics must be possible.
The aim should be genuinely to challenge young people to think for themselves and to form their own opinions, rather than to promote a particular ideology. Students should not be made to feel that their identity is under threat or that they are being attacked or belittled. With those provisos teachers should feel that they can tackle difficult issues without being accused of misbehaviour.
As in all areas of society, there is some racism in schools but very rarely on the part of school employees, who in almost every case take pains to project and live by values based on respect, tolerance and the intrinsic value of every human being.