Memorandum submitted by The Childrens
Legal Centre
HOW BULLYING
SHOULD BE
DEFINED
There needs to be a clear definition—preferably
in statute—of "bullying" in the school context.
It has been widely accepted for a long time that bullying is far
more than physical or verbal abuse or threats. Isolation from
one's peer group is a common type of bullying and particularly
difficult to detect and counter.
With the advance of technology "bullying"
should be defined to include contact (or lack of contact) by mobile
phone/text and e-mail.
Any definition should be drawn to include the
situation where pupils are bullied by teachers and other staff,
as well as by their peers.
THE EXTENT
AND NATURE
OF THE
PROBLEM OF
BULLYING IN
SCHOOLS
The Childrens Legal Centre operates two education
law contracts with the Legal Services Commission. One of these
is to provide telephone advice as part of the National Education
Line. The line is accessible to children, parents, carers and
professionals working with children. We receive a large number
of queries concerning bullying in school. The queries are usually
from the parents or carers. Most of the cases we deal with have
a bullying element.
We believe that other education law advice services
(eg ACE, IPSEA) have similar experience to the Centre. The statistics
point to bullying in school continuing to be a huge problem. The
cases which come to our attention are likely to be the tip of
the iceberg.
Many victims of bullying are afraid to confide
in teachers or in their parents. They fear that reporting the
bullying will make things worse. They have no confidence that
the school will be able to protect them from the bullies. Case
studies from the Centre suggest that this fear may be justified.
It is easier for schools to deal with the victims
of bullying and their families than the perpetrators. Consequently
the solutions proposed end up as a penalty for the victims eg
changing them into different form or teaching groups away from
the bullies.
There is still a significant number of school
managers who refuse to accept that bullying occurs in their school.
Reports of bullying in such schools are consistently played down.
Victims who report bullying are treated as hysterics, or possibly
even liars. It is even more difficult to obtain a sympathetic
hearing when the allegation of bullying is made against a member
of staff.
The penalties imposed on bullies by schools
do not always fit the crime or act as a deterrent. The Childrens
Legal Centre has found examples of bullies who received only one
or two day fixed-term exclusions for a serious physical assault.
In spite of the requirement for each school to have an anti-bullying
policy, there appears to be little consistency in the way different
schools treat bullies.
Homophobic and racist bullying is still part
of school culture. It is more pronounced in some geographical
areas of the country. Most schools now have specific provision
in their discrimination and behaviour policies to deal with such
issues. By and large they are dealt with more severely than bullying
without these elements.
Many looked after children are frequent victims
of bullying. This may arise because lack of funds reduces their
ability to fit in with prevalent culture.
It is still unclear whether the drive to increase
tolerance through the teaching of PHSE and citizenship has had
any positive impact.
There is no doubt that victims of bullying—whether
at school or elsewhere—often go on to bully others. Some
pupils bully others because of their own lack of self-esteem and
self-worth. Pupils with special educational needs may become victims
of bullying but may also be bullies. There does seem to be a "victim
posture" which attracts bullying. This may be due to the
pupil's special needs or circumstances, or may come about after
being bullied. The Centre recently encountered an example of this.
A pupil with special educational needs transferred to secondary
school and immediately became the victim of several groups of
bullies. Despite the school's efforts, he was physically assaulted
and verbally abused every day. After only three weeks at the school
he is so frightened that he has become school phobic.
SHORT AND
LONG-TERM
EFFECTS
Bullying reduces self-esteem and creates feelings
of pressure and hopelessness. It is impossible for a child to
perform to his or her best ability academically when faced with
daily bullying from other pupils or from teachers.
Many victims of bullying are frequently absent
from school due to real, or exaggerated, physical illness. In
the worst cases, pupils become school phobic—unable to cope
with the school environment at all. Some spend long periods of
time out of education. Sometimes parents feel that they have to
remove their children from a school because the school has not
protected their child from bullying. It may not be possible to
find an alternative school quickly, so the child loses important
parts of their education. Parents may feel forced to home educate
their children in order to protect them. There have been examples
of parents being prosecuted due to the child's non-attendance
in these circumstances.
Truancy can also be a sign that a child is being
bullied in school.
Bullying can result in psychological trauma
that lasts a lifetime. In one case the Centre represents a twenty-one-year-old
man who is still suffering from clinical depression due to severe
bullying and unsympathetic treatment at school.
Bullies may receive a short-term boost of confidence
through having power over a victim. However, in the long run,
there will be no enhancement of self-esteem. If schools impose
penalties for the bullying behaviour in the form of exclusions,
a bully's education will be disrupted, and his or her academic
achievement reduced. Exclusion from school is often the precursor
to involvement in the criminal justice system.
TACKLING THE
PROBLEM
Government policy on bullying is aimed:
— At encouraging victims to report
bullying.
— Educating pupils so that they recognise
bullying is wrong—avoid it and discourage the behaviour
in others.
— Requiring schools to have bullying
policies in place and be aware of the problem.
— Giving schools greater powers to
punish bullies—particularly by exclusion.
The difficulty with all the approaches to date
is that parents have no effective remedy when schools fail to
implement bullying policies and/or protect the pupils.
The existing complaints system—to governors,
to the local authority and then to the DfES is long-winded and
rarely effective. The Local Government Ombudsman has no jurisdiction
over the internal management of schools. The courts have been
reluctant to find schools negligent when they fail to protect
pupils from bullying.
The Director of the Childrens Legal Centre,
Professor Carolyn Hamilton, is legal advisor to the Childrens
Commissioner for England. His office recently considered the issue
of bullying and produced a report. The main recommendation of
this report is the setting up of an independent tribunal system
to consider intractable bullying disputes between parents and
schools. The Committee may wish to consider his report if it has
not been submitted separately.
It is important for the parents of victims to
communicate their concerns to the school as quickly as possible.
Schools, in turn, should always take a parent seriously. There
are no magic wands, so parents may need to be patient as the school
investigates and instigates measures to ease the problem. At the
same time they need to encourage the child to believe that things
will get better. Parents should not be discouraged if schools
do not take their concerns seriously at first. They should enlist
help from medical and counselling services whenever possible.
It is very distressing to learn that your child
has been bullying other pupils. The natural reaction of parents
is denial. Schools should be aware of this when communicating
with parents. It is important that school responses are measured,
and take account of the needs of the victim and the bully. Dialogue
with parents to identify what help their child may need is vital,
so that the cause of the behaviour can be identified.
There are still major areas of difficulty in
the joining up of support services. Social Services are understaffed
in most areas. Social workers respond to only the most serious
child protection cases. Our experience at the Centre suggests
that it is rare for the police to prosecute pupils for harassment
or assault on school premises. On occasion, schools avoid reporting
potential criminal behaviour to the police, because of the affect
on the reputation of the school. Even when the police are involved,
the victim may be too frightened or too emotionally fragile to
take part in the prosecution process. GP's vary in the level of
support they provide to victims of bullying. When the medical
professionals are supportive of victims or of bullies there is
no certainty that their opinions will be given proper weight by
the school.
The responsibility of a school to confront and
punish bullying has to be limited geographically and in time.
Schools do not have the resources to police the local area in
order to prevent bullying. It would not be appropriate for them
to do so. However, there should be a responsibility on schools
to deal with bullying when it occurs on school buses, and immediately
outside the school premises at the beginning and end of a school
day. Schools cannot ignore bullying that takes place in the community,
if that bullying also affects relationships within the school
itself. When a school becomes aware of such behaviour, it may
be best to use an outside agency such as the police to impose
sanctions, as the school cannot investigate allegations properly
when incidents have occurred in the wider community after school
hours.
Strategies to tackle bullying effectively should
include:
— Ongoing education to influence attitudes
to/tolerance of others regardless of differences in social class,
race, sexual orientation etc.
— Systems which give victims non-threatening
opportunities to report bullying.
— Reassurance that reports of bullying
will be taken seriously by those in authority.
— Consistency in the way bullying is
dealt with.
— A more effective complaints system
accessible by parents/carers and pupils.
— Alternative education provision for
those traumatised—temporary or permanent.
September 2006
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