This article is from page 17 of the 2007-10-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
BULLYING 1s a subject which is of- ten touched upon but seldom hight- lighted. With the mushrooming of technology in recent years, this problem has increased dramatically but still gets insufficient attention in Ireland.
This was one of the factors that prompted the Ballynacally Develop- ment Association in conjunction with the Ballynacally National School Parents Council to hold an Anti-Bul- lying Awareness Day last Thursday, culminating with an information evening at the Woodstock Hotel.
Attended by both adults and chil- dren, the meeting was arranged to raise awareness of the problem and used various innovative methods in order to emphasise the plight of the victims involved in bullying, ranging from live readings from the victims and their families to role-playing video clips featuring teenage actors from both sides of the bullying di- vide.
As well as general bullying statis- tics, the committee also organised bullying questionaires which were sent to various schools and work- places around the county.
Probably the most alarming statis- tic mentioned on the night was that out of 165 children questioned in the
five schools in the Ballynacally area, a staggering 111 of those questioned said that they had been the victims of bullying at some stage in their Thee
This statistic really hit home to the local crowd in attendence and was key to the first speaker presentation on dealing with bullying in Clare. Pauline McAllister, a community children’s worker with Clarecare, runs an anti-bullying programme in Clare. In her presentation, she ana- lysed what exactly bullying is, why it happens, how it affects the victims and how it can be lessened or allievi- roe
The main speaker on the night was John Lonergan, Governor of Mount- joy Prison, whose vast experience in this field was invaluable to the largely young audience. In his ad- dress, he dealt with adult bullying as well as child bullying, an area which is often overooked. He also stressed that the biggest difficulty in trying to deal with bullying is the lack of hard evidence and that rushing in to ac- cuse someone without hard evidence can often lead to even more prob- lems. Silence was another factor he dwelt on, explaining that silence and the victim’s inability to deal with the problem on their own often leads to more serious consequences such as breakdown or even suicide.