A Tenby county councillor has asked for a commitment from the local authority that it takes incidents of pupils being bullied seriously, querying whether it would be appropriate to consider the banning of all student mobile phones from schools due to the unpleasant actions of some on social media.

Clr. Michael Williams, who represents the Tenby North ward on the council, has posed his questions to Pembrokeshire County Council’s cabinet member for education, Clr. David Lloyd for future discussion, stating that he has received representations from parents expressing concerns that in some cases bullying is not given a sufficiently high priority.

“Given the generally disappointing performance of Pembrokeshire’s schools, there is understandably a drive to improve education outcomes - can you as the responsible cabinet member give me an assurance that the drive to improve outcomes is not at the cost of students’ emotional well being?” he states.

“I am concerned that our young people are being put under quite intolerable pressure in many aspects of modern day life, in particular the invidious impacts of various social media outlets.

“What level of appropriate support is available to students in Pembrokeshire schools? Will the authority consider the banning of all student mobile phones from Pembrokeshire schools?

“Could you also give a commitment that the authority takes seriously incidents of bullying in schools?

“I have received representations from parents expressing their concerns that in some cases bullying is not given a sufficiently high priority,” added Clr. Williams in his questions to the cabinet member for education.