Three days given before they advise parents or guardians .??. It should be reported straight away.

Isn’t half thought out legislation only going to add more undue pressure on schools? Schools or any other institution cannot legally accuse or suggest bullying has or maybe taking place, they cannot infringe the right of anybody , young or old to their good name. Have schools , parents , boards of management been consulted about this? and should not their input be taken into account before any legislation is brought forward? Bullying absolutely has to be tackled for the sake of all involved but don’t bring forward guidelines that don’t have substance for those that have to try and implement them.

Unworkable in schools ! Everyone forgets that members of management boards are all voluntary and would not have the time to devote to meetings on demand.

Fair play but it won’t make a whole lot of difference. I wish I didn’t have to be so cynical. Bullies will be bullies and the powers that be are rather helpless when push comes to shove. Best to hope it gets better like it did for me. So though my senior cycle was great, I was so relieved when school finished

I hope they include information on how to handle teachers who are bullies.

Its about time something was done about the bullying endemic, not sure if this is the right way of going about it, but its a start. We’ll see come Friday what this report suggests.

I blog on the topic, and I’d appreciate if people read it.

carrollteacher.wordpress.com

The department of education talk like they’ve some sort of control over Schools. The same Schools that are allowed to set down their own enrolment policys that clearly discriminate against the eldest, or only child in a family. When you argue this with the department of education, you are told that as long as a school adheres to their own discriminatory enrolment policy, then there’s nothing they can do. Only in Ireland would such criminal behaviour be tolerated. Isn’t it only recently that the government held a referendum regarding childrens rights? It seems now that they didn’t go nearly far enough.

Should have been issued years ago, it could have saved many lives of teens

Not going to change much. Bullying is a part of life. Kids are pretty horrible to each other at times and no amount of government intervention is going to change that. Also they should learn to stand up for themselves.

2013 and they are only issuing a policy now??!!
That’s because of the denial that bullying has been going on for years, When I asked the question “What is your bullying policy” at a school meeting I was looked at as if I was crazy!!
I despair this Country being so in denial

Bullying is an issue that can be reduced if the right protocols are set up. Whether these are right or not? I dunno.

What a load of $h it… If somebody bullied my kid I wouldn’t think twice going into a classroom and giving a good few slaps to a deserving party. Simple and effective.

Dail eireann exudes so much negativity in nearly all that they bring forward these days and that negativity seems to come out from the general population in any topic that is being discussed lately, people seem to be internalising this negativity as if they themselves are to blame for the utter failings of those in government! They are not,! Things have got to be changed and “bullying” is not the least of things that have to change , and it has to change in a meaningful way . People, citizens, taxpayers or what ever label you want to be under need to demand from those in power those changes , but demand such change in a positive way . We need to move away from the dire social consequences that austerity has inflicted on our people and demand “Positive Change”

And we’re still waiting, week beginning 28th. In the mean time, every government party TD voted against Deputy O’Brien’s Bill. So next time a bullied child ends up in a desperate situation because of a school being unclear how to proceed, or unwilling to intervene, perhaps they will think of the opportunity that was lost here to provide a solid basis for whole-school intervention nationwide. Do we need to wait another 20 years?

A change of mindset is needed, the root cause of bullying needs to be tackled, could be violence or abuse in the home or in the local environment,
I know of one school class who successfully tackled bullying by having pupils give each other neck and shoulder massages, on a regular basis,