Anti-bullying law: parental responsibility, preventing attacks on schools

Bullying of teenagers is a notorious phenomenon. The bullying of a group of aggressors against the chosen victim cripples both the psyche and health. The anti-bullying bill has been popping up in the media for several years now. And finally they are ready to accept him.

MK spoke with the authors of the bill and experts about the new law and other projects trying to curb social evil.

There are already improvements in the situation. Schools have established “trust boxes” and conciliation commissions, although teachers themselves do not always distinguish a simple conflict from bullying. But, for example, in just six months, the system of measures against cyberbullying saved sixteen lives and prevented four impending attacks on schools. Because bullying and so-called school shooting, armed attacks by teenagers on educational institutions, are related phenomena.

The author of the bill, first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Education, Yana Lantratova, told MK about how our authorities and departments work together against bullying.

— About a month ago we held a conference at Moscow State University and discussed this situation. Some numbers: 57% of children experience bullying and 70% of teachers. Moreover, bullying is the most common cause of teenage suicide – 75% of them have a history of bullying. And 28% of children who were once bullied have problems with mental and psychological health 10–15 years later.

The deputy noted that only 0.3% of victims “turn somewhere.” The reason is not only that there are few school psychologists, but they are also not trained.

And schools are not at all interested in making cases of bullying public, doing their best to “sweep them under the rug” and hushed them up.

“The school is forced to hide it because we have criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the institution,” says Lantratova. — And as soon as a school says that we have a criminal subculture, bullying or something else, then it falls out of this rating (the rating of a school affects funding, grants, independence in decision making. – Author) And the first decision – We will change this system now, this will come out of the criterion.

The bill will also revise parental responsibility, but it is not yet clear how. There are common cases when one child bullies everyone, but according to the law, nothing can be done – neither transfer them to home schooling, nor expel them, nor send them “to commission” without the permission of adults.

— Should this be a fine in case of parental refusal or mandatory preventive work with professional psychologists and psychotherapists? — Lantratova lists. — There is no solution yet, the issue is debatable.

When finalizing the law against bullying, we were guided by the experience of other countries. Germany criminalizes cyberbullying. In Finland, a prevention system has been created where it is taught that bullying is shameful and completely wrong. In Kazakhstan, schools have a uniform protocol on how to respond in cases of bullying. Within 24 hours, the victim’s parent writes a statement to the class teacher, and a protocol is drawn up. They assemble a commission, which includes a school psychologist, a deputy for educational work, a deputy for security, a school representative, and both parents.

Honored Teacher of Russia Alexander Snegurov agrees that the “level of aggressiveness” in schools has increased:

“School has ceased to be a place where people receive education and upbringing, but has become a place where conflict situations are clarified day after day and most of the lesson is devoted to disciplinary issues.”

Snegurov names several more ways to overcome bullying:

— I recommend a return to classes with different profiles for children with deviant behavior, with disabilities, etc. These schools or classes were eliminated during optimization – they must be returned. Next: the introduction of elements of the Makarenko system, which is being talked about a lot now. Elements of the Makarenko system, when the team itself, the community of students and teachers give a moral, civil assessment of the violation of behavior and regulate it. No, this, of course, is not standing on peas and not fines. Practice shows that the system, in which the school or class staff itself evaluates the behavior of a particular student, still works today.

Psychologist Evgeniy Idzikovsky talks about why school problems leave an imprint on the rest of one’s life.

— When in therapy we look at current problems at work, in our personal lives, and analyze situations, a chain is revealed. And we see that the school era is extremely important in the formation of personality. Moreover, from elementary grades and even at the junction with kindergarten. These two transitions: the first – to primary school, the second – to secondary school, to the 5th grade – are very, very important in education, in the formation of personality.

Everyone who comes to therapy has their own history of school problems. It happens that “the story is about school, but about interaction with one’s own parents, where the school is more of a background.”

“In the Soviet era, if a parent was told that “your child is bullying someone,” most likely, a slap on the head would immediately follow, because it is not good to attack other members of the team,” says Idzikovsky. “It was a conditional social norm when an adult could intervene in a conflict between teenagers on the street and do something (and the most significant person who could do this was the teacher). Not so now. Nowadays, for most parents, their own child is the main central value.

This “abstract ideological conflict” is superimposed on the existing school hierarchy, on the child’s subordinate position. There are few psychologists in schools, and they are not sufficiently trained; teachers do not have the authority they once had. This psychological background fuels school problems. Including bullying.