Dossier : School violence

Television broadcast, physical violence, verbal violence, lack of discipline, sanction, presence, proximity, training

Informative Campaign

General public, school actors

TV news, RTBF, 30 May 2011
Interviews collected in several schools of Brussels.

Belgium

English

Parents, Policy Makers, Teachers, Researchers, Young People, School Directors, general public.

15% of the students suffer school violence, and all schools are concerned. It is verbal and physical violence.
It is a sensitive theme. This is why many testimonies of the report are made anonymously.

Types of violence
Generally everything is ok in the schools, but sometimes a conflict between two pupils can degenerate. The report shows different violent facts.
Theft, physical aggression, bullying, these serious facts are fortunately uncommon.
The violence in school is mostly verbal. This invisible violence can cause serious damages and also concerns teachers.

Solutions to manage violence
The report shows different solutions :

• A school resorts to an external counsellor. This one will start from the reality of the school (for instance some young people are taller than the adults and, therefore, adopt dominant behaviours) and will propose actions to overcome the difficulties.
• Another school punishes any lack of discipline, that is to say the infringement of the school rules (the most frequent type of school violence).
But, how to punish well? Listening to the student, the sanction is then decided thanks to a dialog with him/her. It is very important that he/she accepts the sanction, because the sanction has to be considered as a reparation.
• One last school ensures a preventive adults presence everywhere and all the time. This presence and proximity of teachers by the students fosters exchange and trust relationships.
• A university professor proposes a last track: to train the pupils to an adapted social behaviour.
That is to say training the pupils to some relational and emotional competences instead of seeing them shouting, bustling or even striking when they don’t agree.

The journalist concludes “A kind of behavioural therapy maybe soon in the curriculum”.

This report has the virtue of making the general public aware of bullying that is still often a “taboo” theme in the schools. It also brings a positive message by offering trails of solutions experimented by several schools.
Broadcasted at the time of RTBF news, the report reached a huge number of televiewers.

Intervention protocol, Videos.

In a few minutes, and thanks to some concrete examples, this report broaches rightly the phenomenon of school violence. pages

Extract of the RTBF news :
http://www.rtbf.be/video/v_jt-19h30?id=1042073&category=info

Martine PRIGNON

INFOREF

Management of projets