Gang report removed from Birmingham City Council website
A LIST of 80 Birmingham schools and colleges which could become recruiting grounds for violent gangs has been removed from the city council website – despite it meeting with approval from some head teachers and community workers
Director of scrutiny, John Cade, took the decision to drop the police and Home Office report – Street Influence – which gives a no-holds-barred account of how the city’s two main gangs lure children into a life of crime.
He acted following widespread concern that simply by publishing the document the council was in danger of glamorising gangs and unfairly writing off schools as places where the seeds of future violence were being sewn.
Despite the council removing the list, the Birmingham Mail will continue to publish it on its website because it feels it is important for parents to know.
An urgent investigation is under way today to discover who at the council decided to put the report on the internet.
A meeting of a scrutiny committee set up to examine Birmingham’s gang culture was told yesterday that the identity of the schools in the list should have remained secret.
See the full list here
