I was bullied at school and I remember it vividly. It was one of the reasons I wrote FAB (Friends Against Bullying) Club. .
The Press in Christchurch (now calling itself Stuff, unfortunately) is doing a series this week about bullying and it makes disturbing reading. There are ways to prevent bullying, but it seems those methods are not being implemented across New Zealand schools.
“One in four Kiwi kids are bullied at school – a rate that’s barely improved in the last 15 years and is more than double the OECD average. ”
And:
“New Zealand has the second worst rate of school bullying in the developed world after Latvia – and more than double the OECD average, according to a 2015 survey by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Depending on the global studies consulted, between 20 and 50 per cent of Kiwi schoolchildren are bullied.
Government data suggests rates of bullying have only decreased 3 per cent since 2013, and a 30-year study indicates bullied children are four times more likely to contemplate suicide as adults. Bullies are twice as likely.”
I hope this spurs more action, but I feel newspapers aren't as influential as they once were.
