The time when it was thought that harassing a child was considered “children’s issues” has long passed and now the school community and authorities are taking more seriously the protection of children against discrimination and abuse.
In fact, the term is well determined and agreed by all the schools involved in the project “An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others”.
As well as bullying, cyber bullying is keeping the authorities alert. Although technologies like the Internet and mobile phones are a valuable tool for children and teenagers´ relationships, formation and leisure, it can also be harmful when it is not used appropriately (because of lack of knowledge) or it is in malicious hands. In these cases, some minors can be harmed by the actions of others.
Bullying has a negative effect on the social environment of the school, leads to other antisocial behavior as well as creating a difficult atmosphere to learn.
That’s why the schools have engaged in building a protocol which enables them to foster a non-discriminatory environment minimize the incidents and implement a process to follow if it occurs.
The main reason why the Project set to analyze the National and School Protocols to fight bullying was that the dangers, difficult situations and anxiety problems that bullied students face often start at school. The solution to deal with this common conflict also begins there. When this situation is detected, whether presented by the bullied, their classmates or the teacher, the process really starts. However, it has been proved that bullying can be more effectively tackled when a prevention and intervention policy is used to handle both bullying and cyber bullying.
Despite the different economic, social and cultural backgrounds the ten countries taking part in the EMB Project share the need of a School Protocol. In several countries prevention is part of the school organization, or included in the syllabus such as the successful KiVa programme. Others organize activities at the beginning of the school year so that the school community will get to know each other. Others have different programmes, plans and projects and tutorial sessions at different levels to prevent any kind of violence among students. Also, peer observation has proved successful.
Finally, it should be mentioned that although in general there is still not a well developed prevention protocol in all schools, intervention is well established in almost all. Nearly all the schools have a counselor or a committee who monitors meetings with the aggressor, the victim and families. Then the rules of each school are applied, which usually include corrective measures. If the harassment persists, local authorities could be involved.
While it is accepted that home and society play a major role both in the cause and in the prevention of bullying, the school is also crucial and should not be underestimated.
School-based initiatives can reinforce positive behaviour , encourage tolerance and boost self-esteem . Experience has proved that when an anti-bullying policy is developed and carried out in the school community it becomes the basis to minimize bullying behaviour in schools.
