Logan: Tackle bullying as wider public health issue

Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan called on the Government to get the Departments of Health and Education to join forces to tackle bullying as a public health issue.

“I would like to see the two departments working together, rather than one, confined to the sphere of education,” she said.

She made her comments, in Limerick at the launch of a report on bullying in schools which involved over 300 children aged 10 to 17 from various parts of the country. The children and young people met in group sessions and shared their views on how to prevent as well as tackle bullying.

Ms Logan said bullying will continue to be part and parcel of children’s lives: “I think what is different — the two things that came up very strongly from this report — homophobic bullying, because it is difficult to deal with, and cyberbullying, because of the nature of cyberbullying: it is hidden, because it’s pervasive in children’s lives. It doesn’t finish at the school door. It follows children home, which makes it much more intense and much more upsetting for children and young people.”

After the suicide last week of 13-year-old Erin Gallagher, from Donegal, she said dealing with such tragedies was not as simple as closing down a particular website such as ask.fm.

“If ask.fm is blocked in Ireland, I think what you will find is another website will develop. That’s part of the problem. It’s not quite as simple as just blocking a website. It’s everything from teaching parents about how to have reasonable oversight of their children’s online activity, educating children.

“In our report, children said they don’t understand cyberbulling. So while we are all talking as adults about cyberbullying, the children as young as 12, 13, 14 and 15 were saying ‘can you explain what cyberbullying is’ and how to recognise it and how to react or behave when somebody misbehaves online.”

She said schools can have difficulty in tackling claims of bullying, having to deal with parents of a child who alleges bullying and parents of a child who deny such claims, thus inhibiting a schools’ ability to handle incidents.

“Among these (difficulties) are the fact that bullying can often occur in places that are hidden from view and that, in some cases, its underlying causes can concern prejudicial attitudes such as homophobia that may not be openly discussed and challenged in schools.

“Furthermore, bullying can be symptomatic of factors arising in a child’s life outside of school, including at home, in the community and in the wider society.

“Although schools certainly have an important role to play in the prevention of bullying and intervening when incidents of bullying arise... responsibility must be taken and shared appropriately across the education system and I believe in the wider sphere of public health with an emphasis on positive mental health.”

Emerging from the consultation workshops was the broadly shared view among children and young people that incidents of bullying should be dealt with through restorative measures.

“Children and young people consistently emphasised the importance of all students being facilitated to express their views and actively participate in measures to deal with bullying.

“As this report illustrates, they made a wide range of concrete and creative suggestions as regards how children and young people can be encouraged and supported to take an appropriate share of responsibility for addressing the problem of bullying and, as such, for building a culture of respect for the rights and dignity of every child.”

Youth view

What young people think should happen when it comes to dealing with bullying:

* Parents, teachers, and other school staff need to be proactive, and alert to signs of bullying.

There should be adequate levels of supervision, particularly at break times and in the yard, and security cameras should be used effectively, but appropriately, to support monitoring.

* Nominated students, prefects, or mentors could or should be among ‘go to’ people for students to report bullying.

This should not involve students assuming inappropriate levels of responsibility, and would have to include measures to equip students with the capacity, knowledge, and skills to fulfil the role.

Schools could have a buddy or mentor system so students do not need to report bullying on their own.

* Students could report concerns via their school’s website and schools could promote helplines.

A dedicated space in students’ school journals where they can note concerns should be considered, as well as ‘talk to teacher’ boxes in every classroom where children can place messages. Schools could identify a time and place that offers students privacy to report bullying.

* All incidents of bullying need to be noted, reported, taken seriously, and dealt with promptly, appropriately, and effectively. Schools should develop methods of dealing with cases in which there are no witnesses and make counselling and other appropriate supports available to victims.

* Read more here