Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
It’s been a funny old week, there seems to be something in the air? Every corner I turn I am hearing accounts of bullying. Worryingly, the source of the bullying appears to kick off at school here in Bahrain.
Bullies are targeting girls and boys and parents are looking for support and guidance from school but don’t always feel like they are being supported enough. When we send our children to school each day we trust that they are in a safe environment.
Alarmingly, this week alone whilst wishing expat families all the best on their new ventures, some reveal their son or daughter had a hard time at school. Sadly, the bullying continued and they felt the only option was to return home or place their child into boarding school.
Naively I assumed the bullying was only occurring in the older years but, no, it’s across all school years.
Cyberbullying is alive and kicking big time and, yes, of course, it’s happening in Bahrain. Social media in its various forms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Kik … and probably others that I’m obviously too old to know about.
Let me bring Kik to your attention. It’s an instant messaging app and it’s the latest craze at some schools here and already causing problems amongst our children.
Kik does not have parental controls, users are supposed to be 13 or older but it’s actually rated 17+ by both the App Store and common-sense media. Does your younger child use Kik?
What needs to be done?
SCHOOLS with the support of PARENTS and our CHILDREN need to take effective action to prevent bullying happening in the first place. How do we put this in place?
Educate, educate, educate! Teacher development programmes, regular parent workshops and weekly personal and social education classes time-tabled into the school curriculum would not go amiss.
Bullying has no place anywhere in the school community, and this applies both to the bullying of students and teachers.
