The measures taken by the United Kingdom and France against school bullying

In the United Kingdom School bullying is illegal in the United Kingdom as soon as the bullied suffers “violence” or “assault”.20 It is explained in the “UK rules”, an Internet site in which all the United Kingdom’s laws are registered and updated almost every year. Furthermore, there is in the United Kingdom what is called “School Anti-discrimination Laws”: “the discriminatory rules apply for all schools in England and Wales (and most in Scotland). The aim is to prevent all forms of harassment, victimisation, and discrimination in schools.”In the “UK rules” site, there is advice for parents who want to report school bullying. Thus, it recommends parents to first inform the school. Then, the school will handle it depending on the “seriousness of the matter in hand”: they can “deal with it ‘internally’ at the school premises. All schools have procedures for disciplining and excluding bullies.”23 Consequently, the rules are the same for all the country and for all the country’s schools but each school can have different procedures to deal with it. Moreover, “in some cases, the education facility might also report it to the police or the local social services” But parents have also the choice to report bullying directly to the police if they feel that their kid is in danger at school 

Contrary to France, in the United Kingdom there is a law (Anti-Bullying policy) since 1998 which “obligates schools to implement preventive measures accompanied by sanctions against school bullying”.25 “Section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 states that maintained schools [state schools controlled by the local authority] must have measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils. Some schools choose to include this information in an anti-bullying policy, whilst others include it in their behaviour policy.”26 That is to say that in the United Kingdom, all schools have a Safeguarding programme in order to protect pupils at school and at home but also to protect the school’ staff. “Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes. Put simply safeguarding is child protection, supporting vulnerable children, safe care, at home, in school and in the community, taking action.”27 In other words, the safeguarding is a document which presents the general rules of a school that everyone – adults and pupils – must respect in order that everyone can feel safe at school. The safeguarding programmes are available on the Internet site of schools. It is a document that pupils, parents, teachers, and all the schools’ staff have to consult. In the Internet site of Scissett Middle School in West Yorkshire, you can find the safeguarding programme in the “Pupil Welfare” headline28. The school even holds a “Pastoral & Well-being team” composed of nine members which ensures that the safeguarding is respected and that everyone can feel well and safe in the school. In the “Anti-bullying” section, pupils who feel bullied find advice concerning people they can tell, when and how they can speak about it and what can they do to avoid being bullied. In some schools, pupils can even contact a charity via a website or a phone number to find help. An article in The Guardian points out that in 2008 “half of UK secondary school pupils (46%) think that bullying is a problem in their school and is caused by students language difficulties, skin colour, race and religion” which is a considerable amount. Nevertheless, 42% of the UK students are “happier in school” than “in the rest of Europe”29 which means that the United Kingdom seems more preoccupied by school bullying and more advanced concerning the prevention and the management of it than France is. “Stephan Roman, regional director for west Europe at the British Council, said: « Research out earlier this week showed that bullying is endemic in schools. By working with young people, we are finding ways to change this. They know – as we do – that learning about other people and understanding different cultures is the key to a better school experience for everyone.”30 In other words, to combat school bullying, pupils do need to open their mind in order to understand and to accept the distinctive features of their classmates and of the people who surround them.

In France 

In France, as well, school bullying is punishable by law. The guilty party of school bullying risks a prison sentence and fines. Bullied can ask justice to sentence the bully and to repair the harm done to him whatever their age: the victim has six years to report it after the fact. Then, the complaint will be handed over by the police to the Public Prosecutor. Moreover, an underage pupil can go alone to the police station and reports the facts, but he can’t institute civil proceedings himself: his parents must do it on his behalf. It is not possible to lodge a criminal complaint against the bullies’ parents, but they can be required to provide compensation to the victim.Besides, if the victim’s parents reckon there was a mistake made by one or several people of the school (for instance, if one of the teachers was aware of the facts but did not do anything to punish the bully), they can ask for compensation. In that case, parents have to take the civil court. Then, if it is a state school, the State will have to compensate the parents of the victim, on the contrary, if it is a public school, it is the school management which has to compensate the parents. For example, in the case of Marion, a French thirteen-year-old girl who killed herself after suffering school and cyberbullying for several months, her parents decided to take the court to condemn the school which did not take actions to stop Marion’ suffering. Indeed, in the book written by the victim’s mother Marion, 13 ans pour toujours32, Nora Fraisse explained she tried several times to warn the middle school’s headteacher about Marion’ suffering by asking him to move her to a new classroom but in vain. « J’ai appelé le collège à de nombreuses reprises pour leur demander d’agir. Au standard, on me disait toujours que le principal et son adjoint n’étaient pas là, qu’ils allaient rappeler, mais ils ne l’ont jamais fait. J’ai quand même fini par avoir en ligne le principal. Il m’a dit que je ne devrais pas m’inquiéter, que ça allait se tasser. C’est alors que je lui ai demandé de te changer de classe : « Marion souffre. » Il a retorqué qu’un transfert était impossible. Je l’ai supplié « Faites un effort, elle n’arrive pas à travailler, elle rentre en pleurant, elle n’est pas bien. » Mais il répondait toujours : « Ça va se tasser. » ». 33 Moreover, the school had not find it judicious to let Marion’s parents know about Marion’s behaviour change, nattering or undue delays: « Le comportement de Marion se dégrade depuis quelques temps : bavardages récurrents et même parfois prononciation de mots grossiers pendant le cours. » […] Retards, bavardages, devoirs non présentés… Comment as-tu pu accumuler depuis plusieurs semaines autant de remarques, une dizaine d’observations sévères sans que nous en ayons été informés ? »

The means of prevention used to raise awareness among adults and pupils

I would like to show through this part that thanks to books, movies, short films, and awareness days, it is possible to reduce school bullying by warning and raising awareness among adults and pupils. Nowadays, there are a lot of prevention methods put in place within a school; a classroom and an administration for pupils as well as for adults in order to protect that “fundamental right” that school is. Thereon, in France, during their schooling, future Assistant Principals now have a lesson on school bullying but also on cyberbullying entitled “Approche des phénomènes de harcèlement entre pairs et de cyberharcèlement”. Here is an extract of their lesson in French: « Le sujet du harcèlement scolaire est important puisque ses impacts interpellent et choquent l’opinion comme la mort ou le suicide. Il peut également générer des troubles du comportements et possède des effets à long terme. La France ne fait pas figure de pionnière sur cette thématique et a été à la traine pendant un grand nombre d’année mais les campagnes de sensibilisation commencent à changer la donne. C’est essentiellement depuis 2011 que de grandes campagnes de lutte contre le harcèlement voient le jour. Actuellement, ce phénomène suscite une connaissance partielle et ce malgré les campagnes et les politiques publiques. Il y a encore trop peu de personnes qui semblent suffisamment à l’aise avec ce sujet. C’est important d’avoir une approche assez fine de ce que peut être le harcèlement et ses contours. En France, on constate une connaissance partielle des difficultés associées au harcèlement. Difficulté pour l’harceleur, l’harcelé et l’établissement. Il apparait encore dans notre pays qu’il existe une représentation sociale du harcèlement comme étant une norme ou un rituel de passage. Il existe une différence entre les prises de position de certains chercheurs qui pensent que c’est une bonne chose pour se préparer à la vie adulte pour développer des moyens de se défendre. Moins entendu et visible aujourd’hui. Aujourd’hui, en France il existe une sous-estimation du harcèlement du moins avant 2011-2012. Loi du 8 juillet 2013, chaque établissement doit prévoir un plan de prévention contre le harcèlement. Projet pour l’ensemble de la communauté éducative qui doit être adopté par le CA et doit être évalué et amandé suite à chacune de ces évaluations.