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Schools 'need outside help to tackle bullying'; Expert says problem

Sunday Herald, The, Apr 25, 2004 by Stephen Naysmith

STAFF in school dining rooms, janitors, lollipop people and shopkeepers should be enlisted in the struggle against bullying as schools alone cannot tackle the persecution that makes some pupils' lives a misery.

That was the warning delivered by Brendan Byrne, a counsellor and teacher, at the Children in Scotland event "Opening the School Gates", in Inverness yesterday.

Dublin-based Byrne said it was no longer enough for parents to expect schools to deal with an issue that often has its roots in the community. In fact, staff who do try to deal with the problem are often unable to act if incidents take place outside school grounds.

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"If someone is being got at on their way home, 500 yards outside the school, legally teachers have no jurisdiction over that," Byrne said. "The issue needs to be placed in a wider community context. Parents, non-teaching staff, school bus drivers, shopkeepers, youth workers, sports clubs and the police have a role in countering this."

Bullying can have a devastating effect - leading to absences from school, failure in exams, depression and even self-harm. Today, Professor Kathleen Marshall, Scotland's children's commissioner, will discuss her own experience of bullying in a radio interview, and call for renewed efforts to confront the problem.

Byrne, author of Coping With Bullying In Schools, believes too many schools are still trying to fight the problem alone. His own school, a large Dublin secondary, has a strong relationship with a nearby shopping centre so shop workers can report bullying.

He said that school caretakers and other staff, such as catering staff and playground assistants, are important but overlooked sources of help. "Many caretakers would be reluctant to report bullying - they don't expect to be taken seriously, there wouldn't be a real investigation and they might get targeted by the pupils they had reported."

But he said some adults reinforce the idea that bullying is acceptable, as some believe it is inevitable, or permissible in areas such as youth sports. Others have experienced bullying in the workplace, and have become resigned to it as a fact of life. Byrne said: "Verbal abuse is dished out at sporting events, often by coaches. If they are critical of young players their team-mates can feel they have permission to join in."

Police forces are also sometimes reluctant to get involved, Byrne said. "The more enlightened people in the police realise that they can avoid a lot of trouble further down the road. If they can be seen as a positive presence they can build up a relationship with pupils which will continue into the wider community."

He said pupils need to feel they can report bullying, which is hard to detect, a situation exacerbated by the use of technologies such as mobile phones. "We are seeing more and more use of things like sending abusive texts by mobile phones. It is invasive and frightening for a young person and they really have to talk to someone about that."

Byrne's approach was backed by Andrew Mellor of the Scottish Anti- Bullying Network. He said: "Too often children having problems in school will also have problems in the community. It isn't solely the school's responsibility. This is a significant problem which can ruin lives if unchallenged."

Mellor added: "A ruling in an English court case suggested that a school's responsibility ended at the school gates, but most legal opinion suggests that doesn't apply here. We have to go beyond saying it is someone else's problem."

However, Judith Gillespie of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said expecting shopkeepers and crossing patrollers to tackle bullying was unrealistic. "It is a nice dream, but it is just a dream," she said.

"These days people are so worried about child abuse and the rights culture that they daren't intervene. It's unreasonable to expect a corner shop owner to take responsibility for managing bullying. I think we have to try to make bullying unacceptable but teach children how to cope with it themselves."

Interview: Seven Days

TEENAGER'S six-month TORMENT FIFTEEN-year-old Emma has little idea why the group of friends she has hung out with for years have turned on her.

Just a few boys in her year at her Edinburgh secondary have sustained a campaign of harassment stretching back over six months. Name-calling, offensive drawings of her, vicious teasing about her looks and lack of a boyfriend take place daily. "I seem to be the only one they make jokes about."

Last week one of the boys called her over to see the new background image on his mobile phone. It was of his dog. "It looks just like you," his friend jeered. Emma can only think it is because she is different from the other girls in her group - more sensitive or maybe because of the way she dresses. "I don't wear skimpy skirts to school like them. I'm not like that." Emma has told her mother Jackie but begged her not to get involved.

"Mum wanted to talk to their parents about it but they'd make fun of me even more then. If she reported it to the school it would make it 10 times worse." Instead, she is trying to avoid the problem, staying away from the bullies and ignoring their taunts.

Schools 'need outside help to tackle bullying'; Expert says problem

Sunday Herald, The, Apr 25, 2004 by Stephen Naysmith

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