What action should the school take to incident of harassment?
A key perspective for the school will be the impact of the harassment on the recipient. What is impact of the incident on the person’s work or education.

Because of the complexity and subjectivity of the term racist you will need to determine what is the unacceptable behaviour. Also school based racial harassment can happen between adults, between students or between adults and students. The understanding of issues and responsibilities will vary and you will need to take this into account.

Clearly some behaviour is unacceptable – defamatory insult, or physical assaults.
Some behaviour may be offensive to some people and not to others – such as jokes, language, and teasing, whilst some behaviour can be offensive depending on how they are done – touching, compliments etc. Someone who is a potential perpetrator may tend to see many more types of behaviour as being relatively innocent, however members from BME groups may experience may experience these same behavior’s as part of an environment that is derogatory and hurtful.

Yours school’s induction process for both staff and pupils must explain what is and is not acceptable.

To determine whether the incident was racist, and whether it was reasonable for the victim to the environment as hostile and racist, consider all the circumstances

· The nature of the conduct
· How often the conduct occurred
· How long the conduct continued
· The age of the victim
· Whether the conduct adversely affected the student’s education or educational environment
· The degree to which the conduct affected one or more student’s education
· The identity of the alleged harasser
· The relationship between the alleged harasser and the target or targets of the alleged harassment
· Whether the alleged harasser was in a position of power over the person subjected to harassment
· The number of the alleged harassers
· The age of the alleged harasser
· Where the harassment occurred
· What did the harasser specially do
· What did the victim do in response
· Were they any witnesses
· Has their been any other similar incidents
· Other incidents of harassment at the school involving the same or other students
· What action would the victim require to resolve the situation to their satisfaction