The incidence of bullying at schools has significantly dropped from last year, the Children’s Welfare League Foundation said yesterday, adding that a large majority of victims suffer not only physical bullying, but also “relational aggression,” a type of bullying that is easily overlooked and hard to detect, but can result in lasting psychological trauma.
Bullying in schools has decreased since 2007 due to government efforts and rising public awareness, the foundation said.
However, anti-bullying initiatives still face several challenges, it said.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Teachers and parents often overlook relational aggression, with victims choosing to remain silent as they believe that speaking out about bullying will not help.
According to a survey conducted earlier this year, 16.3 percent of fourth, fifth and sixth graders were said to have experienced bullying at school.
Of those, 94.8 percent were victims of relational bully.
Children’s Welfare League Foundation research and development director Chiu Ching-hui (邱靖惠) said that relational bullying often involves the intentional social exclusion of a victim or spreading rumors to ruin the victim’s social networks, and can cause the victims to feel detached and depressed.
“However, according to another survey conducted online, 93.7 percent of parents and 88.7 percent of children polled take school bullying to be physical violence only, while 30 percent of them think that boys are more likely to become bullies. What’s more, 26 percent of children do not consider peer exclusion as a kind of school bullying,” Chiu said.
Relational bullying has also been aggravated by the Internet.
The survey shows that 62.4 percent of children consider cyberbullying more serious than real-life bullying, reflecting the fact that it is easier to victimize children in a world where real-life rules and adult oversight are lacking.
Many victims do not reveal the bullying to adults, for fear of revenge or being slighted as a “whistle-blower” or because they fear adults’ countermeasures.
Children’s distrust is actually disappointingly justified, the foundation said, as the survey found that 78 percent of reported cases were not resolved properly or even deteriorated.
As worrying as children’s distrust is parents’ distrust of teachers, Chiu said.
“Nearly half of the parents felt all channels of help were closed to them when they needed one, and more than half of them do not believe teachers can be trusted in solving the issue if their kids are bullied,” Chiu said.
While more government attention and action are necessary, the children’s foundation is also asking for children’s assistance in eradicating school bullying, encouraging them not to ridicule, exclude, slander or reinforce bullying, but to respect fellow students and take action against bullying.
Bullying is a group phenomenon, Chiu said, adding that “both the individuals involved in a bullying case and the class as a whole have to be educated.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS