Information about Bullying
Our renewed Anti-Bullying Policy
As we have updated our anti-bullying policy, it is a good opportunity to remind you of what bullying is, how it can affect people and that it is completely unacceptable at St John Vianney's. The Anti-Bullying Policy can be found on our website.
What is Bullying?
Our Policy states that:
Bullying is repeated unreasonable behaviour directed towards a person that creates a risk to health and safety. It occurs when an individual or a group deliberately upsets or hurts another person, their property, reputation or social acceptance on more than one occasion.
What Bullying is Not
Many distressing behaviours are not examples of bullying, even though they are unpleasant and often require teacher intervention and management. There are three socially unpleasant situations that are often confused with bullying including:
- Mutual conflict: In mutual conflict situations, there is an argument or disagreement between students but not an imbalance of power. Both parties are upset and usually, both want a resolution to the problem. However, unresolved mutual conflict sometimes develops into a bullying situation, with one person becoming targeted repeatedly for ‘retaliation’ in a one-sided way.
- Social rejection or dislike: Unless the social rejection is directed towards someone specifically and involves deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others, it is not bullying.
- Single-episode acts: Single episodes of nastiness or physical aggression are not the same as bullying. If a student is verbally abused or pushed on one occasion they are not being bullied. Nastiness or physical aggression that is directed towards many different students is not the same as bullying
Bullying is complex. It often resists simplistic ideas and solutions.
Knowing exactly what bullying is and understanding why it happens are critical to finding positive and lasting solutions for everyone involved. This is important for parents and students.
Students can play various roles within the bullying dynamic. Understanding the peer group is central to understanding bullying.
Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term negative impacts on everyone involved, including bystanders. Therefore, bullying is unacceptable at St John Vianney's.
The reasons for bullying will be found below the surface by investigating issues of power, norms and social status, tolerance and diversity. Exploring these areas and how they influence students' interactions and behaviour can provide essential insights into the most appropriate responses by parents and carers, and the school.
Although having to use it very rarely, at St John Vianney's we have a strategic approach to appropriately intervene when incidents happen as well as preventing bullying incidents from happening.
Rudolf Lameijn
Student Wellbeing Leader
(rlameijn@sjvmulgrave.catholic.edu.au)