It’s lunch time and a girl is having her lunch in the playground, the name calling and teasing begins.  Just kids being kids you may think.   The girl is only nine years old.  The school have been informed and you would expect it to get sorted, but it hasn’t. You see this had been going on for five years. Physical and verbal bullying.  I had the pleasure of meeting the mother when I travelled back to my home area of North Wales.  She had contacted me via my website and is a genuine, warm and caring mum who wanted to do whatever she could to stop the cruel bullies attacking her child. 

The bully has now been removed from the school. The reason - she attacked a teacher.  Had she not, one presumes she may still be there. Its easy to say that there may be double standards at work here, but the problem lies in the policies. Its relatively easy to create and enforce a policy which says an attack on a teacher will result in exclusion, it is more difficult to enforce this for an attack on another child.  Policies on bullying within schools needs to be tightened up.  There needs to be clear policies which children, parents and teachers commit to and are enforced.  This is where the Government, Welsh Assembly and local authorities need to be taking the lead.

Dafyddjones.org aims to change this.  I want to petition the government so that they start taking the issue seriously, making schools nationwide have a policy on bullying which works and is enforceable.  Since leaving school I have campaigned to highlight the issue of bullying. I was myself a target for bullies at school and I don’t want any child to suffer like I did or for any child to become a bully.  I know how much it can hurt, and this spurs me on to try for change.

For years bullying has not been taken seriously.  Over time a lot of children have been picked up off the floor, dusted off, told to toughen up and sent on their way.  This has got to stop.  Policies need to be in place and used, ensuring it doesn’t and that teachers get to the root cause.  Bullies often need help because they are in a bad place in their lives, so that they can grow into respectable young people that we want in our communities.  Teachers need the tools to protect children from being bullied and to tackle the bullies before it is too late.  The clock is ticking.  Some young people are self harming, and in the extreme cases taking their own lives because of this issue.

It is not fair to blame the teachers, a lot are very supportive and go out of their way to help. Indeed, some schools have an excellent track record in dealing with bullies. What worries me is the schools which don’t.  It is time that we helped them to deal with these people by getting a framework which is workable into every school. 

This week is anti-bullying awareness week. This is an important week with an important message. People up and down the country will be wearing wrist bands and showing that they want an end to bullying within our schools.   This should not be a commercial opportunity to sell trendy wrist bands for a profit, it should be about the message and that is why I support anti bullying week.

I set up the website Dafyddjones.org over three years ago, since then I have become aware of the nature of bullying changing.  Electronic methods are now being used to target children, text messages, e-mails and instant messaging all playing their part in moving bullying from the school to the home environment.  The papers are running stories of children being bullied on a daily basis, and bullying certainly seems to be a press buzzword.  Yet the response I have received from the Government seems inadequate. We need action from the top and we need it now.

Dafyddjones.org has been inundated with people signing the anti-bullying petition online and saying that they want change.  You see, this issue affects us all.  The girl at the start could have been anyone, your child, sister, grandchild. Bullying is going on up and down the country and together we need to be sending a clear message to Mr Blair that we want this to stop.  So sign the petition, support anti-bullying week and together the message might just get through.

©Dafydd Jones November 2007