This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
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Case Studies
Analysis of school bullying
The analysis of bullying in school violence started because of a case of physical violence between two students during classes, as well as the misconduct of one student in from of the teacher (poor speech and conduct disorder during class hours).
Starting with this case, we tried analyzing the phenomenon of school violence, mentioning the current or potential difficulties faced by students, teachers, parents and management teams in this regard, and to identify prevention and intervention methods developed at school level, with or without involvement of other social factors.
First, the teacher got involved to settle the conflict between the two students and to prevent it from escalating and turning it into a case of battery.
Subsequently, the case was submitted to the Commission to prevent and combat violence in schools. The meeting was attended, along with members of the school psychology Commission, the social worker, a specialist from the Day Center, the children's parents and the two children directly involved. We analyzed the situation prior to the main conflict and the causes that led to the outbreak of violent behavior. The students were asked to identify non-conflicting behaviors that could address the situation. The psychologist guided the students in this exercise.
The third step was taking legal measures according to the ROI and involving the two students in specific therapeutic-educational.
The behavior of the two students was monitored for three months in school, in day care centers and in the family environment. Upon completion of the term, none of them had displayed an aggressive / violent behavior and had not been involved in any conflict.
Assaulted student "this is not the first time I found myself in this situation, but I admit that I was also guilty. If I hadn’t bothered him, he wouldn’t have gotten angry. But he could have just told me to leave him alone. Not to hit me. "
The verbally abused teacher: "given the particular children we work with, it is not the first time I am in this situation. Our students can not always control their temper, but they also don’t realize the risks of such behaviors. This is not the case of a conscious aggression, a deliberate act of violence of a minor towards an adult. "
The student aggressor: "I do not like to get beaten or to be cursed. I also tease my colleagues and I don’t think they like it".
Parent: "I two understand that we have children who are in a special situation and who don’t always realize how serious are the consequences of their behavior. I struggle with my boys at home and they sometimes yell at me but I never managed to solve the problem if I just yelled back. Neither we, the parents or the teachers should consider ourselves victims in such situations because, as mentioned, most aggressive behavior of these children stem from an emotional and psychological background ".
Student not involved in the conflict: "I don’t think I'd feel good if I was the one beaten. There are many older children who scream at us or beat us and often we have not done nothing wrong.I hate getting hit and that’s why I don’t hit other children ".
In conclusion, both students and adults agreed that there are many instances of violence between students or between students and teachers, the main reason being the lack of non-conflicting behavioral models for children and psycho-emotional disorders characteristic to the mental deficiency that prevents them to constructively manage such situations.
The student aggressor: "I punched him because he annoyed me. I told him to leave me alone. But even during the break he kept coming at me. I know I shouldn’t have beaten him, I could have told the teacher".
Father: "Each of us have moments when we are tired, tedious, angry and yet we do not yell at others. There are, however, situations when we do and children are witness this kind of behavior. Maybe we should think about how our children learn how to behave by imitating us and do not always understand verbal explanations. We can reason and we block such behavior and yet it sometimes happens. We do not like to be victims, but many times when we think of those who annoy us we don’t see them as victims. It is understandable that our children are also not capable of this. We need to offer an atmosphere of calm and understanding in which such conflicts have no reason to appear ".
Teacher "is not pleasant to be attacked verbally or physically, especially us teachers who try and build a relationship with the students. However, we shouldn’t encourage such behavior in any relationship, be it that between adults and children, or between students. We should be aware that the fact that students see us angry or bothered lead to such situations. Our role is important in preventing such behavior and dealing with situations such as this without resorting to coercive measures. "
In conclusion, both children and adults agreed that violence attracts violence and aggressive behavior won’t benefit a climate conducive to cooperation and understanding.
All the students who participated in the meeting said they had witnessed such conflicts and never felt better after such situations. However, they recognized that there were situations in which they were tempted to join one of the parties although they knew it was the wrong thing to do.
Teachers think that most times, on a school level, a large number of students per class can cause damage to the educational climate by decreasing the teacher’s possibility of personal contact with all the students.
Also they unanimously expressed the need to maintain a secure environment for students, especially by providing pro-social behavioral patterns. (Calm, understanding, tolerance, etc..)
From the director’s point of view, the violent conducts of the students in our school declined in recent years, this being a positive aspect of the teachers' work and the creation of educational and therapeutic opportunities (educational circles, art therapy, sports competitions, etc..) which provide students with special needs an environment for acquiring and practicing pro-social behavioral patterns. There are still such conflicts between students, sometimes involving verbal violence between students and adults and these situations should be handled with great responsibility and in compliance with internal regulations by all personnel of the institution.
Parents think that one of the most important influences on the behavioral development of students is the teacher himself, through his/her attitude, conduct and pedagogical skills. Personal example, educational communication, calm and tact can stimulate student behavior. Also, parents bear a responsibility in this regard, because family is the environment in which children build and practice the behaviors learned in school.
In regard to the inappropriate behavior of students, the expert’s
opinions are as follows:
The causes are related to specific traits of the student’s age: they respond to challenges to seem strong, puberty being the period when young people tend to demonstrate superiority over others (power, authority, timeliness of responses, the courage to fight back), but also a period of extreme fragility and of being easily influenced by others (friends group).
Also, aside from the influence of their peers, family also plays a tremendous part in personal development by promoting a certain type of behavior that shapes the child during his process of growth.
Finally, school-family collaboration can act so that such conflicts can be prevented.
The police representative considered that in this case the right thing to do was trying to mediate the conflict, discuss it with the Prevention and Violence Combating Commission in schools, then applying legal measures.
Taking into account the characteristics of the students enrolled in this institution and the level of seriousness of the conflict (not a conflict with major consequences) this approach proved most appropriate. Although the understanding of the children is low, they must learn to take responsibility for their actions.
In conclusion, we should increase concerns regarding school violence prevention, identification of individual causes, interpersonal communication development, increase collaboration with all stakeholders (school psychologist, NGOs, police, etc..) Group discussions were a good opportunity to express the different views of the protagonists.
Comments about this Case Study
Date: 16.03.2012
Posted by: FRANCO MASSIMO DI PAOLO
Type of school: HIGH SCHOOL OF ART
Country: ITALY
fights among teenagers are very common because they consider pride the most important thing in their life. Both teachers and parents have to cope with this problem because they are both responsible for the well-being of the students/children. Teachers have to be trained well in order to be able to face difficult situations and parents have to devote more time to their children because most of the times behind the teenagers need to boast their actions and show how cool they are lies the lack of communication and attention of the parents. Mediation in this case is a good solution and the psychologist in my school agreed with the stratiegies carried out by the school
Date: 07.03.2012
Posted by: Andrés Pecino Peña
Type of school: Concerted
Country: Spain
The analysis of school violence, bullying started because of a case of physical violence between two students in class and the misconduct of a student teacher (bad language and behavior in class).
Starting with this case, we try to analyze the phenomenon of school violence, citing current and potential difficulties faced by students, teachers, parents and teams in this regard and identify prevention and intervention methods developed at the school level, with or without the participation of other social factors.
The case itself is quite common in the centers because students compete to occupy a status and certain roles in groups and want to show courage by using brute force and violence when confronted with a rival or competitor. This applies to students who compete to win over any student or try to prove his strength as the studies do not operate or own any balanced family environment.
Conflicts if they are not well observed and well sobrellevados by adults they may become a general problem. I always say that conflict is good or conflict situations because they help us decide how to resolve them and act on them. And we have to avoid is that the conflict becomes a problem, for me personally are the unresolved conflicts. That is why we have to educate from the tutorials and regular classes, to resolve conflict situations, searching among all possible solutions and training on values such as empathy and respect above very own self-centeredness of the age of adolescence .
In our school, as elsewhere, there are some cases of violence among students, but are cut immediately and dramatically, cooling a little overheated situation and spending time analyzing the situation that has caused the spark, and that situations are almost always small. It is known that large fires are caused by a small spark.
It works much the prevention and education in human values to stop aggression or violence.
Regarding the case of aggression to teachers is not allowed in our school because the parts are made and reports to the families of those attempts to overcome the authority. Well understood as the authority that generates and controls the education of students. If a student passes a tad with respect to persons engaged in teaching and even with not working as teachers in school, are warned and sanctioned by the rules contained in the ROF.
In every way always makes them think about possible faults that students are often committed in a true reflection of experiences and family situations not very balanced. Always request the cooperation of the family and ends with a commitment by the students which makes use of both physical and verbal aggression.
There is a committee in our school Coexistence involved in the affairs of the college living from an early age.
Date: 07.03.2012
Posted by: Carmen Selma
Type of school: Concerted
Country: Spain
This case is becoming more common, and that bullying is almost always end up with physical violence. Just happened to that student who was assaulted by another. Whenever there are more cases of these and teachers and parents should be able to prevent and act quickly and effectively.
Usually when our center is given a case like this, the professor should inform your tutor and he would contact the committee co-existence and determine what punishment would be imposed at that haunts. See also essential to try to help harassed and try to defend themselves and how to deal with some harassment.
It is often very difficult to detect cases of bullying does not say if the student or the teacher tells his students padres.Casi always the weaker who receive this type of harassment, but be very careful with these students, because it has been the case in which then they become bullies as a way to defend themselves and because they have learned to defend well and only know how to react with violence. We tried to make him see that violence will not lead anywhere and that they should talk, but many times we say it does not work.
I think that teachers should be trained better and get much more information from various associations and institutions on these issues. We try through our experience as best we try to solve.
I also believe that parents are the principal should be informed about the different types of harassment that exist and mainly from cyberspace. We tried the tutorial from carrying it out, devoting several sessions on the network harassment and informing parents about the pros and cons of it and what to do.
Date: 07.03.2012
Posted by: Diana Cantos
Type of school: Concerted
Country: Spain
A boy 15 years old (A), clever, cunning and charisma among their peers, begin to hate a guy who came to school the previous year. This second (B) is handsome, comes from another autonomous community, therefore their speech is different and attracts girls. It is also radical in the way of expressing policy, boasting agree with fascism at certain points. A, I think, sees it as a threat to its social, a competitor. Basically I think I admire, but begins to annoy you in the classes they have in common, throwing confetti to ridicule. The other is threatening, but never think of anything more than words. A day and B intersect assaults A. Maintain an interview with the tutors and children, a confrontation and it seems that knowing both what has happened is that A has put a trip to B and the other has reacted. A denies it, but to always denies everything. B is usually more honest, and it seems that telling the truth when he complains that to put the trip.
In any case, there were no witnesses and we could not conclude that happen. The punishment was to make them come to school in school hours to work and the reason was the continued harassment and attack one another in reaction to the trip.
We did not take legal action because it was resolved that way.
In this case there was no recognition of who started the fight, which is a difficulty. I think this is remedied by surveillance cameras in schools. I found support in the management team, who taught me what to do.
In this case the web has caught my attention the existence of occupational therapy to address these problems.
I find it interesting the installation of security cameras in school.
Date: 04.03.2012
Posted by: S Todd
Type of school: 11-16 mixed
Country: England
The common element with incidents in my country is the way in which we deal with physical violence. We would be concerned that the situation is resolved through mediation and that both boys can return to learning safe in the knowledge that the situation is resolved. With boys this tends to be relatively easy - They hit each other and "honour" seems to be done. If girls were involved the situation would be much more complex.
What is not in common with procedures in my school? Children do sometimes fight and I think that this Case Study shows a major over-reaction by the school. What has allowed a fight to break out in a lesson? What was the action of the responsible adult in the room prior to the boys coming to blows?
In my school both boys would have been dealt with by whoever was on duty. This would be a senior and experienced member of staff. The likely outcome would be that, if one of the boys could be identified as the aggressor, they would be sent home pending a parental interview and the student who was the victim would return to learning once any medical issues had been dealt with. If, as appears to be the case here, they are both equally guilty then they would be placed in isolation, medical needs would have been dealt with and work would be sent for so that they could carry on learning. The message thus goes out to other students that there is no glory in brawling in lessons and disturbing the learning of an entire class. I would be concerned that involvement of all the agencies in the Case Study would elevate the status of the boys in their peers' eyes. It provides them with a lot of attention and involves a lot of adults whose time could be better spent elsewhere.
In my school the support would come from the Duty member of staff and possibly the appropriate Assistant Head. It would involve parents in an evening meeting and the boys would probably receive a pre-exclusion warning. Their behaviour would be monitored on a lesson by lesson basis for two or three weeks and alternative strategies to thumping someone would be discussed. If it had taken place in my lesson and I was not in any way negligent; I would be looking for some form of apology from the boys for disrupting learning.
I would hope that fights breaking out in lessons are rare. In my school we very quickly become aware of potentially explosive situations and staff try to separate and defuse well before things escalate into violence. Our primary concern has to be with learning and if we anticipate that something is getting in the way we have the support of non-teaching staff to resolve conflict.
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