Do schools REALLY do anything about bullying?

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But if you take things into your own hands, does it make you the bigger person? No. If you do the exact thing that they did to you, does that not make you a bully?

Bullies are usually the people who have been a victim themselves.

I mean there is the LEA if the teachers and police don't do anything.

Conflict has already been initiated if you are the victim of bullying. The satisfaction of doing something to them so dramatic that it makes them stop bullying you in an instant is much better than the feeling of being the "bigger person"

Reply 61

JayJay-C19

No. I don't think a lot of schools do to be honest with you. In fact, my school had a habit of joining in with it - one of my teachers mocked me for being gay and told me to buy a dress for whatever, completely retarded, reason, and my deputy head put me in isolation for 3 weeks because I came out and it was apparently "not the type of thing to do in school". A few years ago, just after I came out, I was quite vulnerable - lost friends and everything suddenly just caved in on me. I tried to kill myself and my school decided that was all my fault and I was an idiot and it's my fault I felt that way and isolated me again for apparently influencing people into things like suicide and self-harm... when like one person knew about it. A teacher heard about it because they saw rope marks around my neck and so on but yeah.

Primary school was worse, the teachers used to gang up on the pupils quite literally. Spread rumours amongst the staff, make sure everyone knew about the sudden occurrences they all so fondly bitched about. I had someone break my thumb in primary school, on purpose, and the teachers decided to blame me for it and say I did it myself and I was just trying to get the pupils in trouble.

However, this is all behind me now and I'm nothing like that anymore and don't have these experiences BUT...

To answer your question, NO. I do not believe schools, or at least most of them, do anything about bullying. I think that there's a lot of selfishness when they're faced with cases of bullying and they think of how awkward it maybe for them to follow up the lead.

Reply 62

e aí rapaz

It must be pretty difficult for the schools, in fairness. In my experience, getting disciplined by school/teachers is only gonna make the bully/s act even worse towards the victim.

Really the blame should lie with the parents, and at a private school you would expect the parents to be better at raising their kids to have respect for others. I'm sure all GOOD parents would be horrified if they knew their kid was bullying someone.

Reply 63

JordanS94

My school was terrible, they didn't even do anything. They claimed to be excellent with bullying but when it came to it they did nothing. Some teachers even witnessed it and walked past.

Reply 64

GreenPlum

at my old secondary (y7 to y11), it was a typical case of victim blaming. I was pushed down stairs in the November of y7, and our head of house asked me what I'd done to provoke it, while I was crying and bleeding from my face.

wonderful.

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Reply 65

Rorschach II

No, my secondary school was awful at tackling the problem of bullying.
I think only after a three years did the bullies stop from getting fed up of the teachers' nagging.
I doubt it was exclusive to my school though.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 66

Manitude

My school expelled a few students for bullying. The trick seems to be to constantly kick up a fuss about it so they have no choice but to take action.

Reply 67

Okkefac

Because the education system is stupid, teachers actually get told off by higher up teachers for punishing too many students (at least at my school they did). This meant our teachers would avoid sending kids out of class (because god forbid the bullies lose 10 minutes of their lesson even though they're too busy bullying to actually pay attention to anything anyway) or giving them referrals or anything.

So I was bullied a lot (I'm mostly talking about secondary school, as I remember it more, but my middle school was even worse, hence why I left to go to the secondary school), when you were bullied at my school and the teachers decided to actually acknowledge it, you'd go talk to the councilor (who always spoke to me like I either was 8 or had a mental problem, or so it felt. I'm not suggesting any similarities between the two by the way) and she'd ask like who said what and you'd have to write down WORD FOR WORD what the bullies say.
Now there's a fault. It's more often than not, the context as opposed to the actual words. And even then, I never would remember exactly what they say, I remember how it makes me feel.
By the way, all this takes place during my lunchtimes, so I miss out on my spare time because I'm bullied, totally fair, yes? Of course I'd give up a lunchtime if it actually resulted in anything being done...

So, after all this, the bully is brought in (separately), probably has to tell the teacher their side of the story, and then the teacher gives them a warning, and that's it. They tell the student not to do it again, but that never stops it.

After a while I just gave up trying to tell the teachers anything. I had an awesome GCSE Physics teacher though who would actually notice the guy picking on me and send him out, but he didn't have an opportunity to be mean to me much in physics.
In biology however, the teacher blamed me for having my stuff stolen, telling me I let them (what, should I not bring my pencil case to lessons? I'll then get told off for not having any stuff!), and she encouraged me to hit them back with a ruler when they hit me (I don't care if it doesn't hurt, it's the principle, teachers should NOT encourage violence).

In general actually it felt like teachers liked to blame me for getting picked on. I must've done something to piss them off. Yes I did do stuff, here it is:
1. Being fat, this usually caused my bullying up to year 8 or so. It influenced the GCSE bullying though.
2. Liking non popular stuff, basically cause for bullying from years 9-11, I wasn't into popular things, so must be weird.
And there are probably other minor things which apparently I did to cause my bullies.

So OP, whilst my situation is no where near as bad as yours (I feel so sorry for you by the way *hugs*, it's great you have awesome people with you now :biggrin:

) LOADS of places never deal with bullies, it really does suck.

(So my story also got a somewhat positive ending, started at a grammar school sixth form and absolutely love it! No bullies!)

Reply 68

Rorschach II

I don't think it's the teachers' faults here; it's the education system as a whole. Teachers also have to be cautious of backlash (but that doesn't make anyone bullied less pissed off.)

I hope it gets better for everyone on here and afar.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 69

2en1

Well my school basically does a LOT about bullying- but only if the victim opens their mouth and takes action. Its a pretty rough school, so theres a whole unit for kids with bad behaviour and everything.

I know this from personal experience, so if anyone wants to know my story- just quote me! Its actually a funny story from my point of view lol :biggrin:

Reply 70

2en1

Original post by GreenPlum

Your head of house is evil! you mustve been traumatised in year 7.

Reply 71

pinkteddyx64

Original post by TSR Mustafa

My school literally will permanently exclude you for bullying , something which seems small such as name calling and your gone.

If only my school had had that policy! :frown:

They seemed to have the policy of rewarding the bully and punishing the victim.

There has been times last year and this time in 2012 when I had flash backs of my school life, and I very, very nearly committed suicide!

Reply 72

CallMeBatwoman

Original post by Keyser-Soze

I empathise with you so much. My experience was exactly the same! Literally, their punishment was apologising to me. In the end, my father just stopped believing me and thought I was exaggerating, so I was forced to go in. Then I just stopped caring. I'm glad you got through it!

Are you doing better now? :smile:

Yeah, getting an apology did nothing, it's too easy to just say sorry without meaning it at all. Same thing with my parents, my parents even got mad at me for being upset sometimes. I'm doing well now thank you, nobody's given me any trouble all the way through sixth form, thankfully some of the nastier characters left me alone towards the end of year 11 when I started insulting and mocking them right back, I'm generally a nice person but I won't take people being nasty. How are you doing? :smile:

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Reply 73

Tom78

I think bullying is and will always be a problem, particularly in secondary schools, it can really be horrible for some.

Reply 74

universal_set

Original post by StrangeBanana

These sorts of Facebook posts don't actually do anything to prevent bullying.

Sad + true but what else can you expect from me? Should I take out my baseball bat and start smashing bullies :tongue:

Reply 75

pinkteddyx64

Original post by universal_set

Sad + true but what else can you expect from me? Should I take out my baseball bat and start smashing bullies :tongue:

Yes please. :smile:

Reply 76

universal_set

Original post by pinkteddyx64

Yes please. :smile:

"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
Gandhi

Reply 77

pinkteddyx64

This year is the 15 anniversary since it all started for me! :frown:

It even happens now when I am out in the streets or sometimes on the bus.

Reply 78

GreenPlum

mobile app, forgot to quote :/

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(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 79

GreenPlum

Original post by Official'Maryan

Your head of house is evil! you mustve been traumatised in year 7.

I just had no trust in anything the school did from then on, it never stopped right up until my final day, and now the sixth form is begging me to stay because of my grades... nope, I have a right to get out of that hellhole now I have the chance :tongue:

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