Violence at school and bullyng

The issue of school violence has fostered a growing space for debate in Brazil about the nature of the phenomenon and on ways of tackling it. Normally, the concerns become more acute before the episodes involving explicit manifestations of physical violence - as when, for example, teachers are attacked or threatened - or when students become involved in conflicts with bodily injury or property damage. The violence there is, in FACT, schools, however, relates not only to this type of situation. Worldwide, many studies have drawn attention to a particular form of violence among peers, known in the literature as "bullying." The English expression, which has no equivalent in any other language, derives from "bully" (bully) and denotes a specific phenomenon whereby some offenders offer their victims, repeatedly, that involve various sufferings, as well as physical assault, intentional forms of humiliation, terror and isolation.

Evidence

The available evidence allows us to affirm, among other things, that the practices of "bullying" are) strongly correlated with poor school performance and avoidance, b) associated with suicidal ideation among children and adolescents c) strongly correlated with future convictions - among perpetrators and victims - the practice of violent crimes. Prevent "bullying", therefore, is a fundamental requirement if we are to improve academic performance and if we want to reduce the indicators of violence in Brazil.

Universality

The "bullying" is found universally in all cultures, which are very common in schools. Since the pioneering research of Dan Olweus in Norway, it is known that it is possible to prevent their occurrence, significantly reducing the devastating effects that are often associated with these practices. For this, however, it is necessary that the phenomenon - often invisible - is known and diagnosed in
each school and that certain districts have policies on the subject.

Prevention

It was with this understanding that we filed in March 2009, at City Hall, a bill proposing the outlines of an anti-bullying policy in schools of Porto Alegre. The initiative, approved unanimously on February 24 and signed by the Mayor on March 26, 2010, is already law and is in force, as a basis for the actions of the Executive in its mission to establish face the serious problem that lies in schools.