Christina McKelvie, Holyrood’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee convener, said pupils across the secondary sector had highlighted the importance of personal and social education (PSE) classes but provision was patchy.
Some schools, including Catholic ones, were “brilliant” on PSE and LGBTI pupils but elsewhere the classes were “disturbing”, Ms McKelvie said, with particular concerns raised about certain Catholic schools.
She said: “A lot of young people have told me some horrendous stories about how PSE is used, especially going down a moralistic route as well, where a lot of young people feel really backed into a corner where their thoughts and feelings were not being respected. We’re hearing of young people who go down the route of self-harm, attempt and, in some cases, actually commit suicide.”
She questioned whether there was a recognition of these issues and what the Catholic Education Service was doing to address them without “making young people feel as if they are committing a sin”. If teachers were not “equipped” to deal with LGBTI issues or misogyny themselves, it was essential that they signpost pupils to the right places for support.
Barbara Coupar, director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, said Catholic schools “propose the gospel, not impose the gospel” and had accepted guidelines against hate crime.
However, since many teachers did not feel able to become counsellors whatever the nature of pupils’ concerns, schools were ensuring teachers and students knew where pupils could go for support.
Ms Coupar added: “That’s why we’re going down this avenue of ensuring that within all of our Catholic secondary schools, they would be able to go to someone – a trusted adult, a safe space within the school – where there would be someone who would have had that opportunity to be trained… in order to be able to meet the needs of the young people in their care.”
Campaign group TIE said earlier this year that nine out of 10 LGBTI students experience homophobia, biphobia and transphobia at school, with 27 per cent having attempted suicide after bullying.