Many bullies are insecure, unhappy, selfish, lonely, angry… their own lives are empty, so they lash out at others to make themselves feel better. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that hurting other people isn’t a great way to make yourself feel good! Bullying is not a great path to take through life. It won’t win you friends, although plenty of people may be afraid of you. And if you go on pushing people around to get your own way, the chances are you’ll end up in prison one day… seriously.

Like many bullies, Brittany needs help to find better ways to relate to people and better ways to feel confident – she can ask for help from her guidance teacher or school counsellor.

Bullying isn’t good for anyone – the victim or the bully.

Cathy

I was bullied in my last school and it made me miserable. My new school has a fantastic anti-bullying policy, which makes all the difference – why can’t all schools do this?

Zakirah, age 11

Hey Cathy

My friend and I signed up to the Friendship Charter on your website. We’d like to help our school to be a bully-free zone. Any ideas?

Julia, age 13

All schools have to have an anti-bullying policy to protect students and ensure they have an education free from bullying. There are many ways of doing this, and some of the best ways allow the students to get involved too. After all, bullying is a problem for all of us – all of us can have a say in how to deal with it!

If you are worried about bullying, ask a sympathetic teacher to look at the issue with your class or year group. Together, you can come up with suggestions of ways to make bullying unacceptable in your school. No school ever has all the answers – there is always room for new ideas.

• Getting everyone involved in an anti-bullying policy helps – pupils, teachers, dinner ladies, janitors, playground supervisors, parents. Bullying affects us all.
• If bullying tends to happen in certain areas of the school or at certain times of day, teachers can keep a special eye on those areas.
• Buddies can be arranged to ‘look out’ for new pupils.
• A ‘Bullying Box’ can be set up in the school lobby where anonymous notes about bullying can be posted.
• ‘Circle Time’ can be used to discuss bullying behaviour and how to overcome it.
• Certain teachers and/or pupils can become anti-bullying counsellors, as happens in the book Driftwood… victims can go to them in confidence and talk about their problems.
• Anti-bullying counsellors can help the bullies too, allowing them to talk about why they act the way they do and how they might change.
• The class can watch DVDs and read books about how bullying affects people, or listen to talks by those who have been victims in the past.
• Children can make posters, leaflets, stories and so on, explaining why bullying is not acceptable, helping the school management to draw up a firm set of guidelines for everyone to follow.
• Schools can sign up to the Cathy Cassidy Friendship Charter.
• Make it a basic rule that if anyone sees bullying taking place, they speak out – create zero tolerance for bullies.