Just a month ago UNESCO, the UN organization for education, science and culture, recognized that Bullying constitutes a concern of global relevance (based on 2019 data).
The LGTB at school being concerned about the Bullying consequences organized a workshop about it, which took place in IES La Rosaleda. The main speaker was the psychologist, Luis Rodriguez, who talked about the consequences and the causes not only from the point of view of the victim but also from the bully´s.
Moreover in the same framework, a survey, with the participation of students from the four project partners, was conducted. Among the positive results, it is to highlight that the most participants know what Bullying consists of and recognize it as a challenge for the school community. Furthermore, 87% of the participants are not afraid to come to school and feel safe. Likewise, most of them also feel safe on the way home.
According to the survey, social media is the keystone for the quick advance of this complex social phenomenon. Αnonymity online has become a tool to spread misinformation and to harass and hurt other people. In the same vein, hiding behind anonymity, the majority of Bullying episodes occur in the school washrooms. This type of Bullying includes writing offensive comments on the walls or someone's phone number and in worse situations recording a video while someone is using the toilet.
What does school do in order to prevent and address Bullying? The majority of the students mentioned lack of trust in the school staff. Is that ´´Warning mode ON´´ for the school staff? Yes of course!
The victims can not and they should not handle alone the problem. The bullies also need help! The solution is:
-More awareness campaigns not only for the students but also for the school staff and the parents,
-Keep the lines of communication open and encourage the students to report Bullying,
-Advance social and emotional learning, that involves teaching skills of self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, responsible decision making, and relationships management.
We may take under consideration that the bully, probably, is a person who suffers, maybe someone who did not get the social or family acceptance, that she/he needed. There is a lot of different reasons to be a bully. In most of the cases, the bully is treated as a criminal, cause the punishment is the easy solution: you just expel the bully and you are done. As a matter of fact, the bully keeps the same or worse attitude in her/his new school. Teachers should counsel and rehabilitate such students through social and emotional learning methods.
Last but not least, (as it is the most curious for me): More than the average of the participants says that they have never been a victim of bullying. Likewise the !96%! of the participants says that they have never been bullies. I do not know if we should consider those tightly connected results as just positive data or should we look deeper...for issues of acceptance and recognition? We know more or less the definition of Bullying, but are we able to accept that we have been bullied or bullies?
Let's work on it together and make our school ´´Bullying Free Zone´´.
And for all of us that felt at least one time in our life as the Ugly Duckling did, just bear in mind the last sentences of the fairytale:
- He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds. Even the elder tree bent down its boughs into the water before him, and the sun shone warm and bright. Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, “I never dreamed of such happiness as this while I was the despised ugly duckling”.-
