Government failing to tackle school bullying, says expert

THE GOVERNMENT is failing to properly address bullying in schools, a leading expert told the Oireachtas yesterday.

Addressing a meeting of the Oireachtas Education Committee, Dr Mona O'Moore from Trinity College said adequate measures to combat bullying would prevent children becoming involved in violent behaviour.

"By intervening and tackling bullying in schools you can achieve a reduction in violence in society in the long term," she said.

"There is a chance to stop the actual development of violent behaviour," she said, adding that apart from fostering violent and aggressive behaviour, bullying in younger life very often affected people throughout their entire lives.

Some 34,500 school children in both primary and secondary education suffer bullying defined as repeated incidents of aggressive behaviour directed persistently against them.

Committee member David Staunton of Fine Gael made the connection between bullying in school and suicide later on in life.

"Not only is it an issue in school but it is a lifetime issue and 20 or 30 years later experiences people have had can still stay with them," he said.

Dr O'Moore, who runs TCD's anti-bullying centre, said a pilot programme in Donegal schools had been so successful that Norway had ploughed government resources into developing the same model nationwide there.

However, similar backing from the Irish Government had not been forthcoming.

Although the system is to be extended to another 168 schools through the efforts of the anti-bullying centre, Dr O'Moore criticised the Government for not establishing and supporting a national anti-bullying programme

"If all schools were encouraged to introduce the Donegal modal Ireland would see a more tolerant, less violent society," she said.

"We should be re-issuing national guidelines to schools. The fact that they are actually out of print at the moment sends a signal that the Department of Education and Science isn't taking bullying as a serious issue," Dr O'Moore said, adding that there was a tendency of tardiness on the part of the Department of Education to support anti-bullying research and initiatives.

As an example, Dr O'Moore pointed to the fact that Windmill Lane studios were lined up to make an awareness video for the classroom but an answer on funding could not be had from the department of Education.

"I'm just desperate, I have to say. It's not a costly thing at all but I can't get an answer from them either way," she said.

Sean McCarthy of the South Eastern Health Board, who addressed the committee on the issue of suicide, said 539 people under the age of 24 had been registered by the CSO as having committed suicide since 1998.