“Children have the right to be protected against violence and abuse.”
Everyone wants to feel safe and comfortable wherever we are, most especially as parents we want our children to feel the same way, we want to protect them against violence and abuse. As of 2013, the Anti-bullying act was implemented in schools, protecting students to all form of abuse from their schoolmates and classmates.
Under this Anti Bullying Act, it states that bullying occurs when one or more of the following occurs as a result of verbal, physical or even electronic or online actions by one or a group of students:
• A student fears possible physical or emotional harm or damage to his or her property
• A student views the school as a hostile, unsafe environment
• A student’s rights have been violated
• Disruption of the learning process, and the security and order within the school grounds
It has been made clear that bullying, in this case, goes beyond physical harm such as punching, pushing or kicking. It also includes verbal abuse that causes emotional or psychological turmoil on a child or wrongly aims to taint another student’s reputation. Cyber-bullying is also addressed by the Anti Bullying Act, and rightly so, as most students, these days have access to the internet and mobile devices.
But bullying is closer than we thought, in fact, this starts right in your home and in your community. As parents we want our child to be in best character and we want to be good parents to be as well, up to the point that we are tolerating small things that contribute a child to be a bully. The best example here is during their playtime, one playmate tells another not to play with this certain child because he/she doesn’t have this and that toy/s, this should not be tolerated cause this makes an impression to the child that it is ok to push one out of the group and making one child left one because he/she have nothing to contribute. This can be corrected by parents or guardians that sharing or being kind to one another is always a must whatever is the age. I also have this one experience that my daughter wanted to play with her playmates but they are pushing her out literally because she doesn’t know how to play the game, and then she started crying because she feels she’s inadequate for not knowing the game which is very wrong for such a 3-year-old girl to feel that way, and what’s surprising is that the parents and the guardians of those children are just watching and even teasing my child for laughing, so what I did instead is I told my child that game is not for girl’s like for her and we will just play on the playground instead which is more appropriate for her. My point here is tolerating small acts and ignoring a small mistake can lead to future problems. So for parents, please always educate the child about what’s appropriate and not, this might be too early for them but they are growing every day and so as their characters.
Bullying is everywhere school, playground and even in our communities, and even though we have Anti-Bullying act we should always watch our children’s behavior and correct them as early as possible and let them understand why it’s wrong and why they should not do that. Whether they are the bully or getting bullied both should not exist.
Bullying is everywhere school, playground and even in our communities, and even though we have Anti-Bullying act we should always watch our children’s behavior and correct them as early as possible and let them understand why it’s wrong and why they should not do that. Whether they are the bully or getting bullied both should not exist.
CAMELLA MELOCOTON 
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