All schools must have anti-bullying policies by Easter

All schools will be required to have anti-bullying policies meeting new national criteria in place by next Easter, it emerged yesterday.

Department of Education inspectors will monitor how well schools prevent bullying behaviour once the policies are established.

The new anti-bullying procedures that replace guidelines issued to schools 20 years ago will apply to the 4,000 primary and secondary schools in the State.

Principals will report to the board of management on a regular basis on how they prevent and deal with bullying. The board will be required to conduct an annual review against a standard check-list to ensure the policy and its implementation is in line with criteria.

Launching the anti-bullying procedures yesterday, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said schools would be required to have education and prevention strategies for cyberbullying for the first time.

Each school’s policy must be developed in consultation with parents, students and all school staff.

A bullying policy template and practical guidance and tips is provided for schools that are not as good as others in dealing with bullying. All schools will be required to publish their anti-bullying policy on their website and give a contact point.

Mr Quinn said a school would be responsible for bullying behaviour that occurred within its grounds and for dealing with the negative impact from bullying behaviour that might occur elsewhere.

“It is not about blaming someone; it is about looking at the underlying issues and trying to resolve those and also trying as best they can to restore the relationships between the parties,” the minister pointed out.

While a lot of cyber-bullying took place outside the school, schools would be required to help pupils deal with it.

The minister said there was an additional responsibility on parents to monitor the behaviour of their children who might be using electronic devices at home to target their classmates.

“Parents have a responsibility to ensure that they are not enabling bullying to take place in the home,” he said.

While cyberbullying was a particular concern because of the related tragedies, bullying tactics had not changed much — for boys it was mostly physical and for girls it was mostly emotional.

The minister said the procedures were designed to create a culture of respect.

Mr Quinn said if a parent still felt aggrieved about how a particular school dealt with a bullying issue, ultimately a case could be taken to the Ombudsman for Children.

Fact of life

Bullying is an everyday fact of life for thousands of children in Irish schools. In every fourth class in the country’s 3,250 primary schools, at least three children are bullied every week. This was the finding of a report in December from questions put to 4,500 10-year-olds during international reading and maths tests.

The results also showed a direct link to scores in the tests conducted by the Educational Research Centre at St Patrick’s College, with significantly lower scores in reading among those who are bullied weekly and above-average performance who are not affected.

A 2009 research report for Gay and Lesbian Equality Network and BeLongG To found homophobic and transphobic bullying pose serious physical and mental health threats to young people. It was directly linked to suicidal behaviour among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender young people, half of whom had been called abusive names by fellow students. One in four LGBT pupils had been physically threatened and 40% verbally threatened because they were, or were thought to be, LGBT. Almost two thirds said there was no adult or teacher they could talk to in school.