(Lab):...I looked for figures,
and the ones I managed to find are from the Association of
School and College Leaders I think noble Lords
will forgive me for a minute if I read out some of the
statistics, because they are pretty shocking; I was shocked by
them. According to the ASCL survey, nearly eight
in 10 schools had been targeted by anti-vax protestors. I add
that most of that was by email, but the fact remains that they
have been targeted. Protests outside schools have been reported
in Glasgow, Cardiff, London, Telford, Leicester, Manchester and
Dorset, so this problem has been experienced right across the
country. I ask noble Lords to imagine for a moment the teachers
and members of staff at these schools, the parents and
grandparents of children attending them, and the children
themselves. Some of these children are very young—admittedly,
many of them are in secondary school—and are having to deal with
some of the misinformation and protests going on in the immediate
vicinity of their schools.
The Association of
School and College Leaders found that 420 schools
had experienced protests. Of 526 responses from schools eligible
for the Covid vaccination programme for 12 to 15 year-olds, 13%
had reported seeing demonstrators outside their school, in the
immediate vicinity. I think there is a point to be made about it
being in the immediate vicinity. Eighteen schools said that
demonstrators had gained access to the school, which is obviously
particularly worrying, and 20 had received communications
threatening harm...
