This year is the 15th Anniversary of Anti bullying week and the theme is ‘let’s stop bullying for all’. The focus is on children and young people who have a disability and/or special educational needs who are bullied at school.
Youngminds (http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people/whats_worrying_you/bullying) describes bullying as someone hurting someone either physically, by hitting or kicking, or verbally by calling them names or teasing them.
The Anti-bullying Alliance (www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk) define it as repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power.
Bullying can be done in a number of ways – directly, such as face to face; online – such as through social media, via text messages or indirectly such as spreading nasty rumours or excluding someone from friendship groups.
Disabled children may also experience forms of bullying like:
- manipulative bullying: where a person is controlling someone
- conditional friendship: where a child thinks someone is being their friend but times of friendliness are alternated with times of bullying
- exploitative bullying: where features of a child’s condition are used to bully them.
The general consensus is that your child should not ignore bullying and that they should talk to someone, be it family, a teacher or a mentor. If bullying is going on at school, the school should operate an anti-bullying policy.
The Law
Some forms of bullying are illegal. These include:
- violence or assault
- theft
- repeated harassment or intimidation, eg name calling, threats and abusive phone calls, emails or text messages
- hate crimes
www.gov.uk recommend that you report any incidence of bullying by school peers to your child’s school in the first instance and they can involve the police as necessary under the legal requirements. You can also report bullying direct to the police. If you’re reporting cyberbullying, keep a record of the date and time of the calls, emails or texts – don’t delete any messages you receive.
Information and support
The Anti-bullying Alliance (http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/send-programme/) have an information hub about reducing the bullying of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
BullyingUK have a wide range of information and resources, including videos, on their website: http://www.bullying.co.uk/anti-bullying-week/anti-bullying-week-2014/.
They are also running a national bullying survey to provide them with in-depth information on bullying and how it affects children, young people, parents, carers and teachers.
Contact a Family have a guide to Dealing With Bullying – for families with disabled children on their website at: http://www.cafamily.org.uk/media/793674/dealing_with_bullying.pdf.
Beatbullying (www.beatbullying.org) offers online information and practical advice on dealing with bullying for children and young people, parents and professionals.
UK Safer Internet Centre – Helpline: 0844 381 4772 www.saferinternet.org.uk – provide information and resources on internet safety, and responsible use of technology for parents, teachers and children.
Newsround have produced a guide to bullying for children – it uses role play video and voice overs to help children think about what bullying is, what might cause people to do it and the effect on victims. Please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zqgbgk7#z2crcdm to find out more.
Local Parent Partnership Services (PPS) offer advice and support to parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs. They are statutory services which means there must be one in every local authority.
