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7 JUNE 2010
NO 1587
Bullying
Any suspicion of bullying needs to be investigated with urgency and sensitivity. Parents or teachers who are aware that something is wrong but who are unable to elicit information from the child of concern, need to strongly suspect the possibility that the child is being bullied. In most cases the victim is unable to offer information due to fear, humiliation, embarrassment or confusion. It is more productive to seek information by observation, or from peers or their parents, than to persist in questioning the suspected victim. Children merely witnessing bullying are often afraid and disclose their anxieties to their parents. (Elliott 1986).
Care needs to be taken in defining whether or not it is a case of bullying or whether the claim of being bullied is providing an excuse for non-attendance. Conversely, girls particularly may be bullied without defining it as bullying as the form of bullying between girls is often covert, such as malicious gossip or social ostracism (Roland, 1988). A log kept of incidents such as temper outbursts, weepiness, truancy or loss of possessions could offer valuable insights into a pattern of behaviour and help identify the perpetrators. Older pupils may offer information without the risk of the reprisals the peer group may encounter. Older pupils have been successfully used to shadow victims to observe the interactions which take place when the bullies feel confident that they are not being observed by staff. One such example is the case of a young boy who refused to attend school but would give no reason. He became hysterical when coercive tactics were tried by his parents. It was eventually deduced by his parents and the school staff that he was being bullied but they could find no evidence. Two older pupils were assigned to shadow the boy and in the first break time these older pupils saw that he was being kept out of the cloakroom by two boys in his class. He had only °two choices; to go out into the playground in the winter weather without a coat, or run the gauntlet of verbal and physical abuse if he went near the cloakroom. The boys were lying in wait each break time to trap him in the cloakroom where they had him at their mercy. Once the problem was identified by the older pupils and reported back, the culprits were chastised and the problem was resolved immediately. The exposure of the deviant behaviour was enough to prevent a further incident, but the older pupils did keep a watchful eye on the victim for some time, and an intermittent check was kept over a period of months until the young boy made friends with a group who were able to protect him if any further trouble occurred. Such strategies must be adopted in a most sensitive manner. These more confident or older pupils could remain to protect the victim, even when the bullies have been confronted, and could offer support in developing social and friendship skills until the victim is fully integrated \ in the class group.
VALERIE BESAG
Besag, V. (1989). Management strategies with
vulnerable children. Bullying: An international perspective.
London. David Fulton Publishers. pp. 84-85.
REFERENCE
Elliot, M. (1986). unpublished research – personal communication. The Kidscape Project. Kidscape, 82 Brock St., London W1Y 1YP.
Roland, E. (1988). Bullying: The Sacndinavian Research Tradition. In Tattum, D.P. and Lane, D.A. Bullying in schools. Stoke-on-Trent. Trentham Books.
