Lessons In Anti-Racism From Accrington Pupils
24/01/2013
A hard-hitting DVD and educational resource pack developed with young people from the North West will be used in schools across the country to tackle racist and religious hate crime and bullying.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Anthony Walker Foundation (AWF) worked together to produce the teachers' toolkit that provides classroom activities designed to increase pupils' understanding of hate crime and prejudice and how to challenge it.
Pupils from schools in Manchester and Lancashire, including Accrington Academy, helped to devise and acted out the dramatised scenarios of racist and religious incidents in the DVD. They provide starting points for discussion and are based on real life experiences of the young people who took part in the project.
Nazir Afzal, North West Chief Crown Prosecutor said:
"Racist and religious hate crimes hurt individuals, families and communities. They can take away a person's sense of self worth, their sense of security and belonging and often cause lasting harm.
"We remain determined to tackle hate crimes by bringing those who commit these crimes before the courts, but education is the key to changing attitudes and preventing prejudice and racist abuse happening in the first place. Teachers have a vital role in challenging this sort of behaviour and guiding young people to a greater understanding of its impact and I hope this resource pack will support them in doing so.
"The young people from our local schools who worked on this project with us have been inspirational. Their ideas, enthusiasm and willingness to share their own experiences brought the stories in the video clips to life and produced a powerful and thought provoking DVD."
Koser Mahmood, Community Cohesion Co-ordinator for Accrington Academy, said:
"Working with the CPS has been an excellent experience for our students. They have grown in both awareness and confidence. It was great to see the CPS really interested in what today's young people are struggling with and giving sound advice that they can use in their everyday lives.
"Racism is an unfortunate reality of our times and by exposing its characteristics and dealing with it head on, a school community can only move forward in a positive way."
The project has also received a positive reaction from the pupils who were involved in developing the resource pack.
Adeel Malik, a Year 9 pupil from Accrington Academy, said:
"We have become a lot more aware of our rights as young people and what we should and should not tolerate. It has become easier to identify these issues now."
Nathalie Whitam, also a Year 9 pupil from Accrington Academy, said:
"We've learnt so much about what a hate crime actually is. It's been an empowering experience that has certainly helped us to support others with their hardships."
One scenario in the DVD shows a black teenager being racially abused by other players at football training. Another shows a Jewish boy being taunted in the street and later being physically assaulted. In others Chinese, Polish and Asian youngsters face racial harassment. A separate section of the DVD features young people talking about incidents of racist and religious bullying and prejudice that they have experienced and the impact it had on them. A variety of classroom activities guide discussion and about the scenes and encourage pupils to look at ways of challenging prejudiced behaviour.
The pack is designed for use with older pupils in primary schools and pupils in secondary schools. It is a free self contained resource for teachers and schools.
