SHARE
COPY LINK

BULLYING

Push for bullied kids to get more support

Sweden has a global reputation for promoting children’s rights, but the country’s ombudsman for children argues that school pupils need better protection from bullying.

Push for bullied kids to get more support
A Swedish classroom. Photo: Lena Granefeldt/Image Bank Sweden

After interviewing pupils aged between seven and 20 at ten different locations around Sweden, the Children’s Ombudsman (Barnombudsmannen or BO) has presented four proposals designed to offer more help and support as part of its annual report on children’s rights.

These include giving pupils the chance to access school files on bullying cases and tightening students’ legal protection against abuse by adult staff in schools.

The ombudsman also recommends that schools should set up student-run agencies to which other pupils can apply for help and giving children over twelve years the right to decide whether or not their cases are examined by officials.

“Work towards violations [of rights] at school must become much clearer and have the child's perspective and rights in focus,” BO spokesman Fredrik Malmberg told SVT News on Monday.

“We have met children who are violated and discriminated against, but do not know how to get help,” he said.

BO is a government agency set up in 1993 and tasked with representing children regarding their rights and interests on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

It monitors how the CRC is put into action in society and pushes for its implementation in Sweden's municipalities, county councils/regions and government agencies.

Sweden currently has the least amount of school bullying in the western world, according to a recent report from the OECD, which suggested that less than one in 20 Swedish pupils experience bullying.

But BO researchers looked into examples of physical, verbal and online abuse as well as sexual harassment in schools ahead of its latest report and noted that some schools currently took tougher action than others on bullying.

“If the school and the adult world reacts at an early stage, it is easier to stop these violations. Teachers are also required to report all forms of discrimination and violation according to a zero tolerance policy,” the report said.

It added that it wanted to “create a climate where the adult world reacts and does not tolerate harassment, or discrimination” and to help students to learn “that it pays to talk to adults when they get into trouble”.

Sweden's centre-left coalition government was expected to react to the proposals later on Monday.

EDUCATION

Madrid to suspend pupils who don’t report bullying at school

School kids in Spain’s capital who fail to report another pupil being bullied will be expelled for up to six days or face other punishments.

Madrid to suspend pupils who don't report bullying at school
Photo: Deposit Photos

Educational authorities in Madrid want to stamp out bullying from the region’s classrooms, their newest measure aimed at preventing the climate of silence which allows bullies to continue getting away with their behaviour. 

From the next school year onwards, any pupil or teacher who fails to report an incident of bullying will be held accountable as silent witnesses.

For pupils, the punishment for not informing a teacher or any other member of staff about physical or verbal abuse against a classmate or teacher will range from a playground ban to a six-day suspension.

Each educational centre will be responsible for determining the severity of actions, or lack thereof, for those who failed to speak up.

The newly approved school coexistence decree will apply to all schools and high schools in the Madrid region, regardless of whether they’re public or private institutions.

This poster by Madrid authorities reads: “Snitch!”, “Snitch? If you mean I don't keep quiet about abuse, then I'm a snitch. The slogan reads “When it comes to abuse at school, speak up”.

Although the decree is aimed at de-stigmatising the concept of being a school snitch, several associations have expressed doubts about the end result of the measure.

“This isn’t the solution,” Lucía Martínez Martín, head of the Madrid office of Save The Children, told La Vanguardia.

“Once they put the measure into practice, they’ll realise it’s not an efficient measure.

“Children first have to know what abuse is because many of them can’t recognise it when it’s there.

“Some think insulting someone isn’t abuse but hitting someone is.

“We have to work with them to fight these abuses, promote respect and teach them their rights.”

The measure also sets the bar for how bullies themselves should be punished, considering online bullying, any form of discrimination relating to sexual orientation, race or religion, insults and threats made to teachers and numerous other forms of abuse to be serious incidents.

Bullies, depending on the severity of their actions, will have to either take part in reintegration workshops, be banned from certain schooling activities and subjects, be moved to another class or face temporary or permanent suspension.

An October 2018 report by Madrid's public prosecutor's office found that there has been sharp increase in the number of reported bullying cases involving “very young children”. 

 

SHOW COMMENTS