The State Duma proposed a new way to combat bullying at school

What is the “bullying index”

Another project to combat bullying or bullying in schools was proposed by the State Duma Education Committee. Deputies are asking to introduce an anonymous annual vote for schoolchildren on the topic of harassment and bullying. And based on the survey, set up a so-called “school friendliness index.”

Such an appeal regarding the prevention of school bullying was made by MP Anna Skroznikova, who sent her proposals to Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova. In the letter, the parliamentarian points out that, according to educational experts, 80% of teenagers experience bullying at school more often than anywhere else.

According to 2020 statistics collected by the ONF, every third child in Russia experienced bullying at school, and every tenth did not tell anyone about it. About 10% of respondents themselves participated in bullying. 52% of children aged 10-18 have been victims of bullying at least once. 32% of them suffered from psychological bullying, and 26.6% from physical bullying.

As a countermeasure, the Duma members propose to organize electronic voting among children under the conditions of “invisibility” of the respondent. True, the deputy indicates the state portal or a popular school service as a possible platform for him, to use which you need to register. How anonymity will be maintained is not entirely clear. But, according to the idea from the State Duma, based on the collected data, a “School Friendliness Index” will be set.

“I consider it necessary to consider the possibility of conducting annual anonymous surveys among students in educational institutions about the prevalence of bullying and harassment,” says Deputy Skroznikova. And based on them, identify “at-risk schools” and “carriers of best practices.”

Social psychologists argue that the concept of bullying is broader than just bullying. School bullying can include not only intimidation – this is a direct translation of the word “bullying”, but also the whole bouquet of physical and psychological violence against a person. Gaslighting: when someone is deprived of their will, they are deliberately “disgraced” in order to force them to work for themselves – to do their homework and write tests. Abuse is moral and physical humiliation. Actually, bullying is when the entire children’s group, sometimes led by a teacher, unites against one victim and is humiliated and persecuted, as in the film “Scarecrow.” Or boycotts, familiar to schoolchildren from the old days – essentially, ignoring, one of the most severe forms of psychological pressure.

To combat bullying, two years ago it was decided to create mediation (“reconciliation”) services in schools. The idea was good: assemble a team of “magistrates” of three teachers, led by an administrator, and teach them a course in “restorative techniques of non-violent communication”… In Moscow, such teams started working in 400 schools. But recently we haven’t heard much about mediation.

There were other attempts – deputies even wanted to introduce the concept of “bullying” into legislation. Last year, a group of parliamentarians, including Yana Lantratova, Nina Ostanina and others, proposed introducing the concepts of “victim”, “participant”, “organizer” and “observer of bullying” into the law “On Education”. And they even proposed to the Ministry of Education to adopt a state program for the prevention of bullying with “inclusion” of responsibility for such violations in the Code of Administrative Offences. The law was introduced into parliament, but did not pass further.

“It’s unlikely that the current proposal is more viable,” says education expert Maria Pirogova. — Just knowing how everything works in the system from the inside, you understand that the “friendliness index” will further overload the reporting and result in formalism. Truly anonymous voting will not work; various state and municipal portals are not equipped for this. Here, or create some kind of independent inspection, which no one will do. Or this function will be entrusted to the same educational bodies, which will begin to “check themselves.” The complainants, if there are any, will be screwed, the project will be terminated, just like mediation. Or “trust boxes” – there was such a project a year ago. But the complaints in these “long boxes” were read by the same people to whom they were written.