A rising number of young people are contemplating suicide due to bullying at schools, says Shawn Clarke, head of Supreme Counselling.
He told the Weekend Nation that five out of eight schoolboys between the ages of 11 and 15 that he saw between July and November were thinking of taking their lives because of pressure from their peers.
“They were all victims of bullying across the board, meaning from both the newer and older secondary schools. If I had eight families reaching out to me for help, five out of eight of them would have had children who attempted suicide or spoke about committing suicide,” Clarke said.
He cautioned that when young people speak about committing suicide, they should be taken
seriously and not be branded as “talking idle talk”.
“The adults must find out from the young people if they have a plan and how exactly are they planning to commit suicide,” he said.
Clarke noted that bullying could take different forms.
“The nature of bullying is not always physical. There was verbal bullying in some cases, where name-calling and even taunting were experienced. So, it is not so much the nature of the bullying but the consistency of the bullying. In these cases, young people could no longer take it.”
He said he was called in at a secondary school this year to help with intervention following a stabbing incident and was astonished at his findings.
“They assigned me to second-year students. When I asked these students how many of them bring to school weapons, 98 per cent of them raised their hands. When I asked them why, some said they were not being bullied, but they were ‘arming themselves, just in case . . .’. So many young people are arming themselves, just in case,” he lamented.
Clarke said that since 2013, he has been advocating for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme to be introduced in primary and secondary schools across the island.
Involving school-wide, classroom, individual and community components, he explained that it is focused on long-term change that creates a safe and positive school climate. The programme’s goals are to reduce and prevent bullying problems among schoolchildren and to improve peer relations at school.
The counsellor said he held meetings with the Ministry of Education and the programme was introduced in four schools – Grantley Adams Memorial School, Lester Vaughan School, the then St James Secondary School (now Frederick Smith Secondary School), and a pilot started at Wesley Hall Infants School. It was later instituted at St George Secondary School.
“In order for the programme to be effective, everyone must play their part – not only the schools, but those at home and in the community.
“I train all adults at the schools – the teaching and non-teaching staff, canteen workers, the groundsman and auxiliary staff, so that when they see bullying occurring, everyone is equipped to deal with such cases.”
He added that where the programme was introduced, the incidents of bullying fell.
“Cases of bullying fell by 11 per cent at St George Secondary School when the programme was introduced there, and they fell by seven per cent at Grantley Adams Memorial School.
“Children at these schools wear their anti-bullying shirts, the schools have class meetings where they have various activities and discussions dealing with bullying are held because there must be consistent reminders of why bullying must not be condoned,” Clarke added.
“We also need to let young people know that suicide is not the answer. We need to develop a culture of having family meetings where children are allowed to openly express themselves without being shut down.
“We need to teach our young people to be assertive, while pointing out there is a thin line between assertiveness and being disrespectful. Sometimes when they are being assertive, they are said to be disrespectful and this can confuse them. We must find a common ground.”
He said help must also be given to the perpetrators and bystanders – those who witness bullying but are afraid to help because they, too, fear being bullied.
“The bystanders can be traumatised by the bullying. We did a survey which showed that bystanders do not help because they are afraid of being the next target. We must teach the entire school population about bullying, and we must come to terms with the fact that bullying is real and we need to address it.” (CH)
The post More youth ‘thinking of suicide’ appeared first on nationnews.com.
