School bullying: Project aims to show how fear can be mistaken for respect

Published on Tuesday 17 November 2009 20:19

ANDY is changing. His mother has noticed it and so has his bedroom furniture. After having had their drawers shoved and doors slammed yet again, on Andy's unhappy return from school, they discuss the problem among themselves.

"He's changed," says the chest of drawers. "He used to be such a nice boy," sighs the wardrobe.

The message of this slightly surreal dramatic performance is clear – there are those who know bullying is going on but are powerless to prevent it.

Created and performed by Glasgow school pupils, Andy's Story is a dramatisation of the experience of being bullied that uses clever dramatic techniques to prompt other youngsters to think.

It has now been made available to every school and youth club in Scotland via the website of anti-bullying agency Respect Me, which commissioned the drama in a bid to prompt discussion among schoolchildren.

In the play, gangs of youngsters battle each other, as the bullying escalates, wearing colour-coded masks and pulling at each other in a stylised dance to the emotional strains of Gary Jules's version of the song Mad World.

It may be more Samuel Beckett than Alan Bennett, but the everyday language of young people floods through the dialogue, which Brian Donnelly, director of Respect Me, hopes will resonate with its viewers.

He said: "Because it's been created by the young people themselves, it's in their language. It's very powerful."

What makes the play different is that there is no resolution, no conclusion. That is something Mr Donnelly welcomes.

He says there was a conscious effort not to offer platitudes and answers but to prompt questions, rather than repeat the many existing anti-bullying messages which encourage victims to report incidents.

In addition to that he is keen to prompt children to think for themselves about what constitutes bullying, and why it happens.

Mr Donnelly hopes the DVD will encourage youngsters to explore the differences between when someone in school is actually respected, and when in fact they are feared.

The pupils who helped created and who star in Andy's Story, have their own tales to tell.

Darren Stewart, 16, who is in fifth year at St Margaret Mary's Secondary in Castlemilk, takes the eponymous role. Particularly vulnerable to bullies, in his experience, are first years in their early weeks at secondary school.

He said: "I think people do it (bully others] to make them feel good by putting others down. You just need to be confident in yourself. I wouldn't say stand up for yourself because I don't believe in fighting."

And he says he was a victim of harassment as a first year. He said: "Only slightly, though. In English we were asked to write a story and I wrote about being bullied and they contacted my registration teacher."

His situation was quickly resolved when the offending boys were told they had been reported for bullying, but not by whom, and their behaviour stopped.

Darren knows there are others in far worse situations: "I've got some friends just now who are having problems. I hope the DVD will make them come forward. I think the main thing about the play was pointing out the difference between fear and respect – people who think they are respected might come to realise they are actually feared."

Also performing in the drama is Ainsley Gilmour, 13, who is in second year. She too understands the problem first-hand.

She said: "I got bullied. It was very emotional for me because it didn't just happen once, it happened again and again. I didn't want to tell anyone in case it got worse so I kept quiet, but my mum noticed when I came every day from school that I was much quieter than usual.

"These girls were calling me names, and spitting at me. They were trying to act big because they though there were four of them and thought I was weak and was on my own."

Fortunately Ainsley's situation was quickly resolved after her mother and the school intervened. But for many others, the problem is a lonely one and often goes unresolved for a long time.

At a live performance of the play and official launch of the DVD, at St Margaret Mary's Secondary, schools minister Keith Brown admitted bullying was still a problem.

He said: "In the past we perhaps haven't been as good at reporting mechanisms. There is a problem with schools acknowledging bullying. A rise in the problem is, in part, actually just acknowledging what's already happening."

He said Scottish Government funding of 350,000 per year goes to Respect Me, Scotland's national anti-bullying service, which works with schools, local authorities and other agencies to support anti-bullying work as well as 160,000 a year to fund the Childline anti-bullying advice service.

His message of openness was backed by Mr Donnelly, who urged schools and local authorities to record incidents of bullying: "They should record and monitor bullying. It is not for creating league tables, but it is to recognise patterns and identify training issues.

"For example, if every second incident is a homophobic one or is a sexist one, or much of the problem is a particular class, or perhaps it is a particular group of young people not getting on, then the appropriate training can be given.

"It is not so one school can say, 'We had 20 incidents and that school had 35,' it is so we can see how we can learn from it. We need to own the figures. People are scared of there being league tables."

A consultation document created by the Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group (SABS), the body that promotes developments against bullying, yesterday proposed there be more consistency nationally on tackling the problem.

Alison Davies, chair of SABS and a former director of Save the Children, said: "Preventing bullying is a very high priority for all who work with children and young people, their parents and carers. The Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group hopes that, through this consultation paper, we can encourage all involved in anti-bullying work to contribute their views on common aims, principles and working practices. This will help to shape services and support as we work towards a shared goal.

"There is a great deal of good work going on across Scotland to tackle bullying. However, we also need to know where there are gaps and to capture views, experiences and new thinking from across a range of sectors."

The document was launched at the National Anti-Bullying Week Conference in Glasgow yesterday and the Scottish Government is now seeking views on the issue until 26 February.

Until then, teachers can use Andy's Story to help young people confront bullying head-on. Mr Donnelly believes it has already changed the way school pupils see bullies.

"Before watching it (the DVD] young people thought there were people in their school who they thought were very popular and got a lot of respect, but afterwards they realised people were actually afraid of them," he said. "We hope young people will sit down and have a discussion."

However, he warned against perceiving troubled young people simply as bullies, as it could only confirm then in their behaviour. "If you are labelled a bully in your early schooling they will carry that for the rest of their school career," he said, "We want people to talk about the behaviour."

&#149 The DVD is available through www.respectme.org.uk to coincide with anti-bullying week which runs from November 16-22. To view it you can go to www.scotsman.com/education.