Bullying

I'm sure there is a plethora of research studies on bullying in schools.

I've seen a bit of bullying lately from the subtle 'I was your buddy yesterday, but today am talking with other friends and am not inclined to include you in this interaction' to the outright nasty comment delivered in a variety of ways, not the least of which is via social media devices.

I've noted that girls can be particularly cruel to one another.  Even a little one of 8 years texting to another "I'm cool and you're not".

A mum said to me today that she agreed girls can be vicious to one another, but she does not observe this in boys. She has both amongst her family and cites a particularly bad year for bullying experienced by her daughter. She changed schools and all was well. I'm not saying the bullying caused the change to another school as I don't know the facts of that matter.

I ask the question : Are boys less prone to bullying than girls?  I just am not on top of the research in this area.

I hold to the view that a school community with a skilfully crafted student/staff wellbeing program will have less bullying.  Can anyone out there substantiate my hypothesis or on the other hand refute it with hard research evidence? In my time as a Principal I was concerned with the wellbeing of all staff and students, but did not have a purposefully crafted wellbeing program.  Such a thing was unheard of in my time. This is not an excuse it just wasn't talked about professionally to any great extent.



May the Force be with you!


GD