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The saga of school bullying

A report by Save the Children shows that 9% of Catalan children suffer bullying at school and 7%, cyber-bullying; training needed for all concerned

Bullying is a kind of violence suffered by thousands of children, even though it often goes unnoticed. In Catalonia, some 16,000 adolescents, 9% of our students, say they have been victims of bullying during the past two months, while 12,500 or 7%, have experienced cyber-bullying. These figures were published yesterday by Save the Children, on the day set aside by the UN to counter such practises.

Frightening as it may seem, what is even more shocking is that many other young people are afraid to admit they suffer from this behaviour and will not admit it to family, friends or teachers. It is impossible to know exactly what the total number of young people this includes.

“The witnesses are part of the solution,” says the head of Social Action of Save the Children in Catalonia, Susanna Capell: “They have a very important role because it is in their hands to either perpetuate the situation or help end it. They are involved because their action, or lack of it, means they are on the side of the bully or the victim.” One simple method is simply to break the “law of silence” in whatever way they can, says Capell. Today young people are also facing the growth of cyber-bullying, although at present this is not as prevalent.

According to the study, the last cycle of primary and early secondary is where more cases of harassment occur while in upper secondary there is a clear decrease in aggression. To combat the phenomenom, Save the Children is committed to the training of all parties involved with a methodology adapted to each profile and now more than 85% of educators have received specialist training.

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