Parents launch anti-bullying group

The parents of a 10-year-old boy who was forced to leave school because of bullying have set up a Facebook group as a support for other families to come forward and share their stories.

Gerry and Liza Dalton, whose son has left a primary school in Co Meath after months of being taunted about his South African accent, said they set up the group, ‘Meath Against Bullies’, to try and get something positive out of the situation.

Mr Dalton said his motivation in going public with the story, as reported in yesterday’s Irish Examiner, was to highlight the lack of accountability and the “farcical situation” where his son, the victim, is being forced out of school.

The final straw, he said, was that the school’s board of management failed to sanction other pupils who had set up a Facebook page taunting his son because it had happened outside of school. The school declined to comment.

The Daltons have been invited by the National Anti-Bullying Coalition to a forum next month with the education minister to share stories gathered through the Facebook page.

Set up last year, the coalition is a voluntary organisation and believes a new system — the “Safe School” model — should be brought in across the country. The model would require training for students, teachers, ancillary staff, parents, and boards of management, and an annual audit would be carried out by a “Safe School” accreditation authority.

Legal expert with the coalition David Quirke believes Ireland’s anti-bullying approach is failing, and is far behind international standards.

Mr Quirke maintains school bullying is an epidemic: “It is clear from the statistics on school bullying that schools cannot solve the issue of bullying, therefore the national anti-bullying approach must be failing.”

Anti-bullying legislation needs to be enacted, he said, though that alone is not enough. Mr Quirke wants the Department of Education guidelines updated and anti-bullying programmes implemented in all schools in Ireland.

In relation to cyber-bullying, Mr Quirke said any relevant legislation is limited and mostly covers bullying over the phone.

According to Mona O’Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre in Trinity College Dublin, young people have taken their own lives because of bullying.

At a conference last year, Ms O’Moore said within the last year, she had heard of at least four secondary school students — and one eight-year-old — who died by suicide because of bullying.

The Department of Education said that under law, all schools are required to have a code of behaviour to prevent or address bullying and harassment.

“Schools must make clear in their code of behaviour that bullying is unacceptable,” the department said.

“The guidelines further state that as well as making explicit that bullying is prohibited in the school, and having an anti-bullying policy, the code of behaviour should indicate what action the school will take in relation to alleged breaches of the school’s bullying policy.”