Bullying Has To Stop: Support Anti-Bullying Week 19th - 23rd November

Bullying has become a bigger problem over the years thanks to new ways for bullies to terrorise their victims. What once was a playground tease has now become a bombardment of nasty E-mails and text messages. A recent survey revealed that 69% of school children have been bullied - that is an astonishing amount of unhappy children in our schools.

Not only has the number of bullying cases increased, but physical bullying is on the up. 50% of reported bullying cases involves physical violence with 34% of those violently attacked needing to have doctor or hospital care. Cyber bullying has made it increasingly harder to children to escape bullies. Victims of bullying are finding it harder to tell someone that they are being bullied because they can’t escape the taunts, not even at home.

Unfortunately for some children they feel the only way to escape their bullies is to skip school, isolate themselves or even end their own lives - why doesn’t the government act until there’s a tragedy? Only a fraction of children are brave enough to tell a parent that they are being bullied. Even then, only 56% of parents felt their concerns where taken seriously when informing the school and 74% of parents believe the school’s methods to stop the bullying didn’t work.

That’s why Anti-bullying week is so important. It highlights the facts of bullying and makes pupils think twice about their actions. Around 60 organisations make up the Anti-Bullying Alliance to help schools realise the effects of bullying and shows them how to prevent it from happening. Many school children don’t realise the effects that bullying has on a child until it’s too late.

There wasn’t an Anti-Bullying week when I was at school and unfortunately I didn’t realise that it was ok to tell someone that I was being bullied, I didn‘t think anyone could help me. I kept it to myself and admittedly became a bully to defend myself. Now, I’m so glad that there are organisations like this one to help highlight bullying on a nationwide scale. The school days are meant to be the happiest days of a child’s life, let’s help keep them that way.

Show your support for Anti-Bullying Week by visiting the website www.antibullyingweek.co.uk/ and register to get your Anti-bullying pack to help raise awareness at schools in your area.

If you are being bullied, please don’t suffer in silence. Talk to your parents or a teacher - they will listen to you and do everything in their power to stop the bullies. If you need more information on bullying, visit www.bullying.co.uk

CLICK HERE to keep updated with the latest news, share a comment or problems with products and services. Follow us on twitter or read more news.