From the teacher's perspective
In the school I worked at bullying was fairly common. Kids were encouraged to tell the teachers, but that was about as useful as telling Mr Blobby. Teachers usually responded by (a) pretending they hadn't heard and ducking into the staffroom (b) telling the kids to ignore it or (c) telling them to stand up to the bullies. Yeah right. You're surrounded by some Neanderthal and his hangers-on and you're supposed to do a Steven Seagal on them?

One kid in my form was consistently accused of bullying but he was smart enough to make sure there was no proof. Once I sent him to the Year Head in desperation. On speaking with the Year Head later, she told me that she was worried the kid was going to hit her. The kid was 12 years old and small for his age, and she was a PE teacher. WTF?

Eventually someone in management had the bright idea of getting victims of bullying to go to the gym at lunchtime. This effectively put kids in detention for being bullied, and since the gym had huge glass windows, gave the bullies an excellent way to choose future victims.

I and a few like-minded teachers found a way to reduce the problem. We were on good terms with some of the hard kids in year 11 and the really hard kids didn't bully anyone - they didn't need to as they had nothing to prove. So in return for a few favours (looking the other way when on smoking patrol, for example) we got them on side. Then when we had to deal with a bully we'd tell or threaten to tell one or other of the hard kids about it. Worked every time.
(eesnahk, Thu 14 May 2009, 10:20, 1 reply)

Sounds like a good strategy!
How I wish more teachers had this sort of common sense (things which do not affect other people (directly) are much less bad than things like bullying, which have a direct impact on someone else's emotions) (not that I support smoking &c. &c.).
( ejlflop errrrrgs. Regularly., Mon 18 May 2009, 20:53, closed)