You can stop bullying, if you are a real friend

Report bullying if you are a real friend and by doing so you stop the pain of the victim.

This is what Andries Ferreira of Mad Rage About Child Abuse says about the occurrence of children being bullied.

The Addie researched bullying after the Gauteng Department of Education said shortly after the schools started this year that they strongly condemned any form of violence in schools and that they will more effectively support the victims of bullying and other forms of school violence.

The website stopbullying.gov gives the definition of bullying as: “Unwanted, aggressive behaviour among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance and includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumours, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.”

Andries says as far as he is aware there is not a lot of bullying taking place in Springs’ schools.

He says the reasons for bully’s actions usually come 90% from the child’s home environment.

The child either don’t receive love and attention or witnesses domestic violence.

The bully, according to Andries, always has an “audience” of bully buddies.

It is these children that give him the power to continue bullying.

That’s why Andries says that if someone out of these witnesses reports the incidents of bullying that the victim will be saved from all the bully’s torture.

“Go to your parents, teachers and school principals to report it,” he says.

The bullying takes place among boys and girls, but it has the same devastating effect on the the victim.

The victim is too scared to talk about it for fear of retaliation and being branded as a “sissie”.

The victim of bullying will also avoid or withdraw from places like school, or will not progress at school, or will not be actively participating in school and social events.

Andries says a parent has to confront his child about bullying when he sees his child’s social and school life deteriorating.

Blue marks or wounds or when a child starts to act strange such as not wanting to go to school, of being overly emotional is a clear indication that the parent has to act.

“Ask direct questions and require an immediate response,” he says.

The matter has to be reported at the school and followed up to monitor if the bullying has stopped.

He also says parents must not advise a child to ignore the bullying or encourage retaliation, but work with the school to stop his child of being a victim.

“Encourage your child to develop interests that will help build resiliency in difficult situations such as bullying,” says Andries.

The Addie requested several organisations and individuals to convince parents of children who experienced bullying, to contact us.

If any one had gone through this ordeal, please email Annalie Anticevich on annalier@caxton.co.za

We guarantee your anonymity.