How to fight bullying in Ukrainian schools, clubs and hospitals?

“Don’t rush! It’s your own fault, because you didn’t give him enough!”. The older gray-haired gentleman hurries out of the private school’s new waiting room, shrugging his shoulders nervously. He grabs the little second-grader by the hand and pushes him out the door in front of him.

I was told this story about bullying very recently. And it is not tragic, but rather unpleasant and, obviously, is the norm of the behavior of individuals.

For two years, a little boy terrorizes the whole class with his behavior. His classmates suffer from him: push a girl, take a toy, spoil a notebook, or fight for no reason. All this happens in a private school.

Parents complained to the class teacher, and later to the principal. The boy was given the first of three warnings. After the latter, according to school rules, they are expelled from the educational institution.

This is what happened after the second one.

While the children are changing, their parents and relatives are waiting for them in the school lobby. It was there that the grandmother of one of the boys was waiting. Next to her is her grandson, a small buller – grandfather was waiting. The woman heard the screams and cries of her grandson, ran into the locker room and found a picture: the boy is lying on the ground, and a classmate is beating him every breath with his fists on the face and body.

The attacker’s grandfather also ran into the locker room.

The grandmother tried to draw the relative’s attention to the child’s behavior again, but heard a rude threat to her to shut her mouth, because she did not know who she was talking to.

The essence of the boys’ conflict was that the offender took the slippers of another child and said that he was going to pee on them now, because he deserved smelly shoes. When the boy started to pick up his things, the offender simply attacked him with his fists.

The school security stopped the fight in time, and the buller’s grandfather pulled him to the car with the words: “Don’t be rude! It’s your own fault, because you didn’t give him enough!”.

The parents again went to the school director, asked to expel the boy from the educational institution. However, the director refused, either for financial gain or for fear of a gray-haired grandfather who threatens his status. It became clear that it would not be possible to change the situation without official statements or appeals. One of the ways to influence the situation is legal regulation.

It is important that everyone understands the essence and benefits draft laws 9400 and 6393-d! They expand the scope of application.

Therefore, perpetrators will be held responsible for harassment (bullying) if bullying occurs not only within the walls of an educational institution, but also in children’s camps, clubs, medical institutions, and sports sections.

Why are we expanding the scope of the law?

Because we received many appeals from parents whose children suffered from bullying not only in schools. And they would like to go to court, but the court rejected their requests, because the law does not require it. It is outside the legal field.

Vulnerability and helplessness frankly hurt people even more. After all, the offender who is not punished continues to do what he wants, and the victimized child suffers even greater psychological trauma. In fact, the aggrieved party must accept the role of victim…

Bills 9400 and 6393-d – on justice. After all, they provide for the responsibility of offenders for their actions!

Professional lawyers, teachers, psychologists, and the educational ombudsman are involved in the development of draft laws. While preparing the document for the second reading, we are working with Nastya Melnychenko, an expert with international experience in the field of anti-bullying, who knows modern anti-bullying techniques.

She emphasizes that bullying is not a broken relationship between two people – the attacker and the victim. These are disorders of interaction and communication of an entire group in which circumstances favorable to bullying have developed.

All members of the group are involved in bullying, even those who do not intervene, or observe and remain silent. Without witnesses, observers, there would be no sense for the offender to attack the victim. For teenagers involved in bullying, the main goals are usually to gain status, popularity, and peer acceptance.

When we talk about international experience, we are primarily talking about the prevention of bullying. That is, all educational institutions, as well as other institutions and organizations to which the law applies, must have methods of preventing bullying. It is important not to allow the formation of an environment in which bullying becomes possible or tolerated.

For example, the Ministry of Education should create a preventive program for educational institutions, because that is where bullying most often manifests itself. Institutions in various fields of activity should take care of effective anti-bullying policies.

But why two laws?

Because one describes a phenomenon that needs regulation, and also makes changes to all related laws, the other, a separate document, establishes responsibility for violations.

In the draft laws, we provided such mechanisms as correctional programs for perpetrators, victims, and witnesses. It is thought that the Ministry of Social Policy will develop corrective programs.

We left a fine and community service as the main types of punishment for adult bowlers who are 16 years old or parents of underage bowlers. Most often, the buller’s behavior is an outward manifestation of the environment in which the child lives.

The main thing in the field of anti-bullying is not to punish the offender, but not to allow bullying at all. This requires preventive programs defined in each educational institution, circle, collective, group. The basis should be acceptance of the dignity and worth of everyone, a humane attitude towards others. And the task of adults is to create an atmosphere of mutual respect. That is, to ensure the prevention of bullying.

In the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, we separately add responsibility for committing bullying by an official who interacts with children: teachers, coaches, educators.

We will demand that such persons be punished in the form of suspension from work for a period of 1 year. After all, many conflict situations are hidden by adults responsible for the upbringing and safety of children.

Many reports about bullying appeared in the information space: a student who mocked a classmate with cancer, a teacher who humiliated students, a school director – a bully, a group of teenagers in a school dormitory harassing new students – there are hundreds of these stories.

It seems like the world has been turned upside down by so much anger and pain, but no. All this happened before, such stories are cyclical. But now, in the age of the Internet and smartphones, information about such cases spreads instantly.

And we finally started talking about it out loud. We have finally learned to distinguish our borders and have an understanding of how to defend them.

It remains to legalize all this. And work as hard as possible so that there is no bullying, and children grow up to be people!

Natalia Pipadeputy of the “Voice” faction in the Verkhovna Rada, especially for UP.Zhyttia

Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.