Sienna Shackleton:

If I could add to that, the schools are definitely not going about it in the right way, in any way, shape or form. Where I am from, I am a rural Mayo person and there is a lot of casual speech around it. That is not just where I am from, it is in a lot of rural positions, a lot of rural places and in a lot of experiences. There are a lot of experiences in smaller schools of having difficulty with saying to someone, "do not say that to me, that is racist."

There is none of that because if that happens, you are then asked why you are being so sensitive and so vulnerable; it is just a joke. Then, if you were to tell the teacher, they would wave it away and say they were joking and were just trying to have a bit of fun. There is no sensitivity around this. There is no acknowledgement that this is wrong. There are no definite guidelines they should be following to be able to say something is enough or too much. Schools are definitely struggling with that and with how to identify it because it has become so relaxed and normal, even with the students, that it can just be passed off as being okay. They will leave it alone and will say the those involved will stop one day, even though they are not enforcing any sort of boundary with them.

To feed back on one of the Deputy’s points regarding the policy documents, the youth advisory panel engaged with youth groups and listened to the voices of children. Both Pieces of Us and Pieces of Us - What’s Next? feature many youth voices that have been heard and written down. We take any opinion we can get. We take any feedback on the pros and cons. We try to take as much of it into account as possible. We show, represent and enhance them.