School Bullying
Bullies Allowed To Get Away With It! For many years now children have been forced to undergo the ordeal of school bullying and it seems as though nobody has been prepared to lift a finger to help them. In fact, it is still going on despite a high degree of public acknowledgement. Innocent and vulnerable children have been made to have a thoroughly miserable time at school by perpetual bullying. As we are now all too aware, some have even been driven to the point where they have committed suicide. This should never have been allowed to happen and the whole situation is classic of today's society's attitude of giving too little support to the victim whilst failing to come down sufficiently on the offender. The situation has been, and is, completely unacceptable and it is way past time that our schools and staff stopped being complacent and apathetic in our approach to dealing with this issue, because one thing is very clear, bullies only do it because they can, and are allowed to, get away with it; and that needs to change! As with any instance of children in need, the responsibility should rest with the adults in the equation, i.e. the teachers and parents and it is way past time that this was accepted.
Name And Shame! One possible strategy is for schools to actively encourage victims to report
the circumstances of an incident (as soon as it happens), and the name of the offending
bully to their teacher. The school would then reprimand the bully and explain
that, if there is any repetition of the incident, he will be named and shamed.
If then there is a repeat incident, the school would then carry out the name
and shame policy by taking a photograph of the bully holding a printed card
in front of himself (perhaps similar to a police photograph) which says "I AM A BULLY".
The title 'SCHOOL BULLY', the bully's name and the photograph would then be
put on a poster and the posters would then be put up in strategic places around
the school. These can be left in place for a week or so and if improvement is
noted, they can be removed. If there is then another incident from the same
bully, the bully should be made to wear a brightly coloured vest, with 'SCHOOL
BULLY' printed on it, during school hours.
Let's Get It Right! Whatever the case, if any pupil is going to be excluded from school, or have to change schools due to bullying, it should be the bully and not the victim. Let's get it right!