Cork mother calls for tough laws to tackle bullying

THE mother of a young girl who took her own life after months of bullying has urged the Government to introduce tough laws here to tackle bullying in schools.

Her call comes as new figures show the Department of Education received more than two telephone or written complaints about bullying from parents of primary and secondary school students for every school day last year, or a total of 438.

Worryingly the trend is continuing with 160 complaints already received by the end of April of this year.

While other jurisdictions have been quick to create anti-bullying legislation, the Government here believes it is up to school management to tackle the issue.

Minister for Education Mary Coughlan said the board of management of each school is responsible for preparing and implementing anti-bullying policies here.

“Responsibility for tackling bullying falls to the level of the individual school, as it is at local level that an effective anti-bullying climate must be established and at that level that actions should be taken to address allegations of bullying,” she said in reply to parliamentary questions.

Colette Wolfe, whose daughter, Leanne, died by suicide in 2007 after a sustained period of physical and emotional abuse by schoolmates, said the US authorities moved swiftly after Phoebe Prince’s tragic death in Massachusetts earlier this year: six of her classmates have been charged in connection with her death and the state’s lawmakers have stepped up efforts to pass anti-bullying legislation and a ‘Phoebe’s Law’ has been proposed at national level. Ms Wolfe is urging the Government to follow suit.

Leanne took her own life on March 23, 2007, at the family home in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, just 13 days after her 18th birthday.

On the day of her funeral, Colette and her husband, Anthony, found Leanne’s diaries detailing how she had been subjected to physical and verbal abuse at the hands of bullies from her school.

Ms Wolfe said she was delighted to see how the US authorities responded to Phoebe Prince’s death.

“The US is sending out the right message that they are not going to tolerate bullying.

“The Irish Government needs to do a lot more to tackle bullying here – verbal, physical, text and cyber bullying – and to help parents,” she said.

“As far as I’m concerned, Leanne was bullied to death but nothing was done to those responsible.”

She said she has used Leanne’s diaries – which were the subject of a hard-hitting radio documentary and has since been distributed to every secondary school in the country – to help warn people of the potentially fatal consequences of bullying.

“All we have are her diaries, our photographs and our memories. But we have to stand up and fight for legislation.”

She also called on parents who are concerned their children are being bullied in school to raise the issue with the school authorities immediately, and demand they act.