The new battle over religion in schools

Sunday Herald

- Churches have called for “non-faith” secular schools to be set up in Scotland in the face of growing demands to change the way students participate in religious activities such as prayers and services. The issue has been brought into the spotlight by a petition lodged at the Scottish Parliament and supported by Secular Scotland.

Teachers’ fear of touching ‘harms students’

Scotland on Sunday

- Scotland’s children’s commissioner has claimed that touching children is “fundamental” to their development and that the “pendulum of safety has swung too far” in their relationships with adults such as teachers. Tam Baillie said that many professional carers and volunteers were scared to touch children, for example by patting a shoulder or soothing an injured child.

School worker wins #163;100,000 after sex jibes

The Scotsman

- A city council has been forced to pay #163;100,000 compensation to a former school technician who suffered “obscene” harassment from male colleagues. Devout Christian Margaret Malcolm said workers at Baldragon Academy in Dundee stuck a Blu-tack penis to her telephone and drew genitalia on paper dolls she had made for a Brownie troop.

Concerns as children’s beauty pageant comes to Glasgow

The Herald

- A beauty pageant for girls aged as young as six is to take place in Glasgow despite increasing concern among family campaigners over the sexualisation of childhood in modern society. Miss Little Scotland, which is aimed at six- to 12-year-olds, will take place at a city hotel this month.

Students in university sexism row cleared of all charges

Daily Mail

- When two female students were left in tears after being heckled at a debate, they demanded action over the “sexist jibes”. Rebecca Meredith and Marlena Valles claimed they were victims of “misogynistic” verbal abuse and complained to University of Glasgow officials. But the two men have been cleared after a disciplinary hearing ruled they had no case to answer.