“Opening the school gates: Bullying is a community issue”

Report by Morag Bramwell. Inverness Council Chambers, Saturday 24th April 2004

Report by Morag Bramwell.
Inverness Council Chambers, Saturday 24th April 2004
 

Seminar organized by Children in Scotland, Scottish Schools Ethos Network and Scottish Anti-Bullying Network.

The main presentation of the morning was made by Dr Brendan Byrne, a counsellor at Coolmine Community School in Dublin. He has also been involved in research and has recently published a book on bullying called, “Bullying in the workplace, home and school, questions and answers”.

The main points from his presentation were as follows:-

From his research in the 1980s Dr Byrne found that the attitude amongst many teachers was “a few knocks never did anyone any harm”. He also noticed that bullying often started outside the school gates where teachers had no jurisdiction. He recognized the need to see bullying as a whole community issue and the school itself is also a community. “It is through our children that we are most vulnerable – when they suffer, we suffer.”

The worst thing for bullied children is the loneliness. When they’re in the process of being bullied, 80% of kids are unable to tell anyone.

Dr Byrne’s definition of bullying was:

• repeated aggression – verbal, psychosocial or physical – by an individual or group against others
• an abuse of power which can be deployed by anyone
• bullying is the breaking down of a person. It robs you of your self-confidence and ability to trust people. You turn inward and begin to blame yourself.

There is the myth of the provocative victim – they bring it on themselves. But research has shown that they have done nothing to deserve it.

An “institutionalized” atmosphere will produce bullying children who go on into adulthood as bullies because they know they can away with it.

It confers power, control, status and popularity. Therefore young people who bully need a convincing argument to show them why they should change their behaviour.

People bully in groups – “when they’re on their own they are quite pleasant to me”. When in a group they take on a different persona as they have a support group and there is always a ring-leader. These people are often weak, fragile, insecure people who expect to be bullied themselves.

There is a huge variety of approaches within schools. The basic difference is those who are proactive and those who are reactive. Schools should stop waiting for bullying to happen and try to prevent it in the first place. Some teachers feel it is not their responsibility, but most do realize it undermines everything they’re trying to do.

An atmosphere needs to be created where people can feel OK about speaking out. This can be done through various methods including: peer support programmes, mentor programmes and friendship weeks.

If we just keep preaching about behaviour we’re wasting our time. We need to ask “what kind of atmosphere do we want to achieve” and work with young people to create a charter which can be displayed.

Young people have to be involved, but others do too. These can include:

• The janitor often knows what goes on better than any teacher. He/she can be invisible to the pupils.
• The entire school community including all non-teaching staff.
• School bus company.
• The community police officer.

The attitude of the Headteacher is very important. They should be prepared to include the whole school community in anti-bullying initiatives. If the whole community doesn’t feel responsible, then no progress will be made.

Brendan Byrne then gave an example of an anti-bullying charter from the Irish Ambulance Service which is distributed to all members on a laminated card:
 

We want our service to be free of bullying
No name calling
No physical abuse
No ganging up
No slagging
We should all feel respected
No laughing at people
Problems should be shared
We all share the responsibility to ensure that bullying is not tolerated
 

Debate needs to start in the wider community. Parents need to know that they aren’t suffering on their own and need support from other parents. We need a return to what we had before – where communities cared about one another.


There was then a presentation from Christine Murray, Principal Teacher of Guidance at Alness Academy.
The children have a project which they called “Stop and Think”. They took a small group of vulnerable children and concentrated on giving them appropriate assertiveness training. Letters of thanks have been received from parents.
The first group drew up a “Bill of Rights”:

I have a right to –

Be treated with respect
Be listened to and taken seriously
Express my thoughts
Say no without feeling guilty
Ask for what I want
Ask for information
Make mistakes
Change my mind


Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the afternoon session but the morning had been well-run and thought-provoking.
 

24 Apr 2004