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The prime minister's wife, Cherie Booth, has championed the cause of victims of bullying in school.


I won't go to school, I'm petrified

Victim Pauline Newman
She said schools could only begin to tackle the problem if they admitted its existence in the first place.

Ms Booth is chairing a conference on bullying, organised by the children's charity ChildLine, in London on Monday.

"It's a terrible thing for a parent to discover that their child in fact is deeply unhappy at school," she said as the conference got underway.


Text messaging gives bullies a new weapon

"You would be surprised at the number of letters I personally receive from parents and children around the country telling me about their experiences."

One teenager who has suffered is 15-year-old Samantha Newman, who says she has been the victim of bullying mobile phone text messages, as well as physical assaults, for more than a year.

"I won't go to school, I'm petrified of going to school," she said.

"At the end of the day it's my GCSEs that are all going to get affected because I'm petrified of going to school."

Long-standing issue

Writing in the Observer newspaper, Cherie Booth said: "Of course, for as long as there has been anything resembling a school playground, bullying has existed.

"It is not on the increase as has been suggested but awareness of its existence and effects is growing."

But last year, the ChildLine took 20,000 calls from children who were being bullied. For the fifth year running, bullying had topped the list of problems children called the helpline about.

"Children like the 10-year-old boy who was held up with a knife to prevent him leaving school, or the 15-year-old Asian girl who was being bullied because she was the only Asian child in her class.

"Children call saying they're being bullied because they're fat, thin, clever, lonely, gay, black, white - the list is endless. Many speak of violence against them, robbery and extortion."



It is surely not acceptable for parents to feel they have no alternative but to move their child to another school

Cherie Booth
Many of those who worked in schools now recognised that bullying went on and needed to be addressed.

"But in some schools, sadly, there is still a tendency to claim 'it doesn't happen here' or to adopt an approach which forces the problem underground rather than out into the open."

This was in spite of the government requirement on them to adopt strategies to minimise bullying and address the problems in a positive way.

"It is surely not acceptable for parents to feel they have no alternative but to move their child to another school to escape the bullies, which happens in all too many cases. That is a victory for the bully," she wrote.

Abuse of power

The ChildLine conference brings together educationalists and researchers into bullying and is being addressed by young people about the relative success of different schemes and approaches in schools.

The Department for Education has sent out 5,000 copies of its new anti-bullying pack - Bullying: don't suffer in silence - which outlines things that for teachers and children can do.

Experts point out that bullying is not confined to schools, it can happen wherever there is an abuse of power - in workplaces, even in families.

"Some people are stronger or more powerful than others and wherever that situation happens you can misuse it," said psychologist Professor Helen Cowie.

But it is estimated that almost a third of children experience bullying in their early secondary school years.

ChildLine spokeswoman Pauline Hughes said: "The key for schools is to find their own solutions which work.

"The conference will be looking at a range of strategies they can consider such as peer support groups which have proved successful. This is where some children are trained to provide support for others.

"They find children who are bullied often find it easier to talk to their peers, perhaps feeling they may have been through a similar thing themselves."

- BBC News



OMFG, I feel like i don't belong...

In Alberta I actually believe its illegal to bully, and you can get fined for it.

The thing about bullying is that it is sometimes a "grey" area. There's a point where people are just "fooling around" and then there is bullying. The "bully" may just be fooling around, but the person who is being bullyed is too quiet to voice their opinion.

In my opinion, insulting the damn bully back and standing your ground when they first start to bother you, puts them off.

making a stand in front of a bully is a BIG MISTAKE
you're better off trying to make friends with them

No, it depends on what kind of bully you are a victim of.

AFAIK, there are two main types of bullying.

Verbal Bullying and Physical Bullying

The majority of bullying is verbal.

True, standing off against a physical bully may not be the smartest thing in the world, but standing off against a verbal bully works.

We all gotta watch for those...

In my opinion america is becoming too easily offended. I say to everyone who lives in the connected states "Chill."
Up here the bullies get beat more than people getting bullied.

I just steer clear (get it hahah) of them.

People thought I was a bully in like 1st through 5th grade, then they just realize I was too cool for school.

I bully, I'm bullied. People make to much of this Jesus Christ people should grow up, words don't hurt.

Physical bullying i can understand being upset about. But verbal bullying isnt harmful, if you cant take it then you probably deserve it. Life is gonna be full of people like that (some worse then others).

Ya, seriously I'm sick of people who cry over words that are exchanged. ESPECIALLY

men.

I can understand girls doing it because they're somewhat conditioned to be more

sensitive but guys are conditioned the opposite. If you don't like what someone is saying

then punch them right in the face. That's another thing. I hate it when you're at school

and you win a fight for self defense but you get in trouble because the other guy is more

beat up.

I am against bullying although I have to agree that once in a while I like to wrap some loser's boxers over his head and stick a banana in his anus, undress him, and let him find his way home from the downtown of New York city.

I was once physically and verbally and the things i remember isn't the beatings its what the bully said, how he would make my life as hard as possible. In my opinion the verbal bullying is the most damaging (unless of coure the bully has a 3 inch thick rod iron and savagly beats u w/ it). In my experience the only way to beat a bully is to stand up to him.

Some people just take bullying the wrong way...
Like my brother, calling him fat... He's taken out about 8 knives and threatened me...But in the end I make him cry ... Even though it was over something so trivial.

That is why we have this thing on Cybre Bullying. Everything is verbal bullying if it is done by text so if people can't take verbal assaults in real life they are sure to be affected by texts that pop up on their screen.

But in cyber bullying you can just block the user.

Its not that hard to avoid you can block people on cyber bullying true but for physical bullying mostly just stick around with ur group of friends alot anyway if things get too serious the police might find out... you people are sad.

Ive been with my avatar from the start.
Jamal stole it
JK

Anyway, physical bullying is annoying, but when someone starts trying to bully me verbally, its just pathetic.

I feel I want to laugh, and half the time I do, or at least giggle.

Believe it or not, Ive seen people in my school say things like
Person #1= 1
Person #2= 2

1) yo mama
2) yo mama
1) im gonn-_______
2) blablablabla


Im not allowed to do that to people who annoy me.
>:D

This is a major problem at my school, hell I even see victims bullying other student as well. The most reasons why people bully people is because they are usually depressed or just enjoy making people suffering but anyways, all I do is just kick the living blam out of them that's how I don't get bullying at school and that's how I get rid of it for me. If it's my friends, I'll do the same for them unless they don't want my help but yet I'll still do it for anyways just for the hell of it. For me, the best way to get rid of this problem is fight back, most teachers don't really give a blam if you kick the hell of out students at my school.

yes...physical pain=a lesson learned

Bah MindArchon, is that even true? I always get people get bullied, but I never see any fines or police officers come or anything. It's really hard to tell from joking, to real, as you said. Text messages though...

Actually, the main reasons why people bully are:

1. They are upset/angry over their own problems (personal, etc)
2. They are bullied themselves.
3. They are frightened of being bullied, so they do it first.
4. They don't like themselves.

I don't know about that, I think some of them enjoy being in the power position.

I have to agree with that I must say. When bullies themselves get bully they always seem to lose that feeling of being bullying because they are bullying someone else.




Sounds like Hitler to me about this reply no a offensive anyways. I haven't met a bully who just likes to be in the Power Position before never thought up that kind of reason though.