Can bullying be beaten?
Tuesday 7 September 2004
Childrens' helpline ChildLine recently announced a 42 per cent rise in the total number of children calling about bullying.
According to the charity, between April 2003 and March 2004, more than 31,000 children and young people spoke to a ChildLine counsellor about bullying.
This figure is up from just over 21,000 during the previous 12 months.
Like many other issues, when it comes to bullying children aren't given the same rights as adults. If an adult has been discriminated against in the work place, the bully can be automatically dismissed.
There are several legislation acts that prevent prejudice at work, but where is the justice for young children who have many years of their lives corrupted by bullies?
Schools around the West Midlands are starting to realise how much of a problem bullying is.
They've launched a programme to help solve the bullying issue. This involves anyone that has been reported of bullying put under isolation. If they offend more than once, they are automatically expelled.
However, this rule seems to only apply if the bully has physically abused another student. Physical and verbal bullying can both scar a child, although physical bullying is sometimes mistaken as being worse.
Lots of young people worry about their appearance, and with obesity in the UK rapidly rising, weight problems aren't just a cause of bullying but also a consequence, with most victims over indulging in comfort food.
Text bullying is also on the increase, with bullies now able to intimidate their victims secretly. This shows just how cowardly these perpetrators are.
According to a survey launched in April 2002 by children's charity NCH, at least a quarter of all young people had been threatened by bullies targetting their mobile phone or computer and the majority of text bullies were girls who use devious tactics to harass their target.
This conveniently allows them to get away with bullying without getting caught by teachers. Now victims can't feel safe anywhere, as long as they carry mobiles, bullies can still abuse them by sending texts like 'we'll get you tomorrow,' this can then lead to truancy.
In theory, the blame could be passed to the minister for education, keeping children in school, and turning a blind eye to the danger they are in. They are unmistakably oblivious to what goes on in schools and demonstrated this by introducing fines to truants, they stereotype young people, assuming the cause of truancy is laziness or lack of support from parents.
Are they aware of the problems keeping us from learning and reaching our full potential? Shouldn't the government be addressing this problem rather throwing out fines at every available opportunity? Perhaps they need to be informed that it's not a solution to every problem.
