"Bullying"
means aggressive and typically repeated behaviour by a pupil where, (a) the
behaviour is intended by the pupil to have the effect of, or the pupil ought to
know that the behaviour would be likely to have the effect of, (i) causing
harm, fear or distress to another individual, including physical ,
psychological, social or academic harm, harm to the individual's reputation or
harm to the individual's property, or (ii) creating a negative environment at a
school for another individual, and (b) the behaviour occurs in a context where
there is a real or perceived power imbalance between the pupil and the
individual based on factors such as size, strength, age, intelligence, peer
group power, economic status, social status, religion, ethnic origin, sexual
orientation, family circumstances, gender, gender identity, gender expression,
race, disability or the receipt of special education.
Different
forms of bullying include:
- Physical - hitting, shoving, stealing or
damaging property
- Verbal - name calling, mocking, or making sexist,
racist or homophobic comment
- Social - excluding others from a group or
spreading gossip or rumours about them
- Electronic (commonly known as cyberbullying) -
spreading rumours and hurtful comments through the use of cellphones, e-mail,
text messaging and social networking sites
School
communities - this means, the school, at
home and everywhere in between - need to be safe places so that students and
staff can be relaxed enough to teach and learn in. In order for that to happen
we need to work together to create a community of character that promotes
positive characteristics/behaviours and stops negative ones.