On Wednesday 9th November, Years 5 and 6 participated in an assembly about hate crime. The assembly was taken by Neil Monk who is the Essex Hate Crime Project Co-ordinator. He was joined by a representative from Essex Police who deals with hate crimes.
The children learnt that hate crimes or prejudice based incidents are defined as any incident, which may constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other persons as being motivated by prejudice or hostility towards a personal characteristic. The protected characteristics are:
Race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality or national origin, including gypsies and travellers.
Religion, belief or faith, including having no faith.
Gender identity, including transphobia – resentment or fear of transgender people or transvestites.
Sexual orientation including homophobia – resentment or fear of gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual people. Includes resentment or hatred of heterosexual people.
Disability or perceived disability – including physical, sensory, mental ill-health or learning disability or difficulty. It includes temporary disablement and life-limiting illness.
Hate incidents are just as important for services to address.
The children were shown figures of the scale of hate crime:
There were 52 528 hate crimes recorded by police forces in England and Wales in 2014/2015
88% of all reported hate crime concerned race and religion
12% reported hate crime concerned LGBT
5% reported hate crime concerned disability
Throughout the assembly, the children were able to ask questions for clarification and share any of their concerns and experiences. Their behaviour was superb.