Beating the School Bullies; Scheme to Stamp Out Playground Violence; Queen Bees and Bully Boys

By NICHOLS, Lane

AN ESCALATION of physical violence and emotional bullying in schools has sparked a major investigation by the children’s commissioner amid increasing concerns about pupil safety.

The move follows research showing violence toward New Zealand schoolchildren is high compared with other developed countries and that bullying is one of their biggest fears.

Education Minister Chris Carter will today unveil his own anti- bullying package to make schools safer. It is in response to a spate of high-profile attacks on schoolchildren and an increase of alerts from teachers about violent and disruptive pupils.

The package will include resources written by pupils to encourage in-class discussions about bullying and changes to the way the Education Review Office assesses schools’ anti-bullying programmes.

Children’s Commissioner Cindy Kiro said physical and emotional violence was a problem in all schools and an issue of public concern. It was consistently highlighted by children as one of their gravest fears and could have devastating emotional effects on young victims.

“The effects of bullying are massive. We’ve had cases at the most extreme where young victims have actually taken their own lives.

“We need to know that if a child is being bullied, they’re able to disclose that and that something effective is being done to keep them safe.”

Loss of self-esteem was the most likely effect. Use of the Internet to commit “cyber” bullying or text bullying made things worse by exposing victims to a wider audience, Dr Kiro said. Bullying appeared to manifest itself differently between genders.

Boys used more overt, physical violence and intimidation. Girls were more likely to use “relational aggression” or social exclusion on victims — “behaviours that harm others through danger or threat of danger to relationships or feelings of acceptance, friendship or group exclusion”.

Research undertaken nationally since 1999 and several recent attacks had highlighted school violence problems and triggered the investigation into school safety, Dr Kiro said.

A recent study showed 15 per cent of secondary school pupils were often bullied and 9 per cent were bullied at least weekly. That was significantly higher than international statistics.

“It appears that we do have high levels of physical and emotional bullying in New Zealand schools in comparison to other countries. This is historical. We’ve had this for quite some time in our schools,” she said.

Her investigation would consider the nature and extent of violence and bullying against schoolchildren, the effectiveness of anti-violence initiatives and future policies to improve school safety.

“I’m going to try to get a sense of how widespread it is. The whole point is about how we build a culture of non- violence towards children. That includes at home, in schools and other community settings.”

The investigation would include interviews with pupils, teachers, principals, and key stakeholders in the education sector. A report would be made public in February.

“I hope there will be a discussion with the minister of education. There may even be changes that happen to the teacher- training curriculum.

“There are implications right across the school spectrum, I would have thought.”

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ueen bees and bully boys

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* In June, a Marlborough Girls College pupil required hospital treatment after an incident in the school grounds. Three Marlborough 15-year-olds appeared in the Youth Court charged with assault with intent to injure.

* Also in June, 14-year-old Waikato boy Myles Dellar was beaten unconscious by a group of classmates at a Raglan Area School social.

* In April, pupils at Auckland’s St Paul’s College posted video footage on YouTube showing organised scraps known as “fight clubs”.

* In December last year, nine junior Hutt Valley High School boys were dragged to the ground and violated by a pack of six classmates — one with a sharp object.

* In 2006, Waikato girl Alex Teka, 12, was found dead the day before school started after a prolonged text message campaign, including death threats and abuse.

* In February 2003, Daniel Gillies, 16, of Oamaru, fell 80 metres to his death after teenagers sent him cruel text messages about his disfigured face.

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