School bullies targeting children with special needs

MPs will tomorrow demand more government action to combat bullying in schools in the wake of new evidence highlighting attacks on special needs children and minority groups.

MPs on the Commons Select Committee on Education will highlight a dearth of reliable statistics on bullying, and warn that teachers are not sufficiently trained to tackle the problem.

The committee heard during its investigation that some schools were reluctant to record details, in case it gave them a bad reputation in the eyes of the parents of potential pupils.

There were also claims of an increase in cyber-bullying, with pupils (including an increasing number of girls) text-messaging threats and abuse. A survey by psychologists has revealed 28 per cent of girls and 10 per cent of boys had been victims of cyber-bullying.

A separate survey of more than 100 families for the National Autistic Society Scotland has shown that 38 per cent of autistic children suffered bullying at school.

The MPs were also told by Jim Knight, the Schools minister, of an increasing number of gang-related incidents of bullying - particularly in inner-city schools. Mr Knight warned of a growing trend of gangs delivering threats through younger siblings, even of primary school age.

Tomorrow's select committee report follows a call from the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, for urgent action to tackle the problem. Writing in yesterday's News of the World, he said: "If we are to beat bullying, we must teach every young person it is unacceptable. This is a responsibility we all share."

Evidence has emerged of threats made to special needs children. Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner, wrote in a foreword to a booklet, published to coincide with anti-bullying week, that some vulnerable children had been driven to the brink of suicide. "There are especially appalling stories: children with Asperger's syndrome and autism who are isolated deliberately."

In one incident, five college pupils in Dorset were suspended after bullying an autistic pupil and posting video clips of their taunting on the internet.

However, the committee also heard evidence from an anti-bullying expert, Professor Peter Smith, that the level of bullying in schools was decreasing.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "Teachers will shortly be given legal powers to discipline as part of our continued fight against the bullies."

Meanwhile, the Tory party leader, David Cameron, is setting up a commission, headed by David Willetts, to try to find out why British children were found by Unicef to be the unhappiest in the developed world.