Hillary Clinton has unveiled a plan to stamp out bullying and discrimination in schools.

Campaigning in North Carolina ahead of next week’s Presidential election, the former Secretary of State unveiled a major plan to tackle bullying and discrimination in schools.

The ‘Better than Bullying’ plan involves more than $500 million in new funding to help address develop comprehensive plans to address bullying.

Clinton said: “We still have work to do to make that promise real for our kids. Children with disabilities are mocked for their perceived differences. LGBT and Muslim students are targeted because of who they are or how they pray.

“Latino and immigrant children turn on the television and are told they don’t belong. When bias influences our children and manifests itself in the form of bullying, we have to act.

“We must make our classrooms and playgrounds inclusive spaces to learn and ensure the Internet is a safer place to explore new ideas. We must teach our kids the value of kindness and provide them the social and emotional skills they need to develop healthy relationships.

“And we must address bullying for what it is: an urgent crisis that contributes to poor academic performance, increased incidence of depression, and in some extreme cases, suicide.”

States that put forward anti-bullying plans will be eligible to receive $4 of federal support for every $1 of new resources they commit to making progress on anti-bullying goals. Funding will only be available to states that explicitly affirm LGBT anti-discrimination protections as part of their anti-bullying policy.

The document also commits to passing the Safe Schools Improvement Act to require that federally funded school districts adopt comprehensive codes of conduct that explicitly prohibit bullying on the basis of race, colour, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion.

Clinton also commits to affirming the expansion of Civil Rights Act protections – reinforcing that Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, also logically prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.