Family Life Education Series
Our Teenage Children in the 21st Century
Bully: A Reality We Like to Miss

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Due to increasing reports of bullying incidents in schools and the wide coverage in the media, we would like to share with readers some of the ideas of an article by Dr Howard Cheng, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Social Sciences, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Following is a translation of the article.

In a website, 11 secondary students were seen hitting and kicking a classmate inside a classroom. The victim was badly hurt physically, mentally and emotionally. This bullying behaviour has awakened people and we are asking ourselves: "Is this really happening on our school grounds and how safe is the school?"

After the case had come to light, we realised the intensity of the problem, and started looking at the magnitude of the case and, if possible, the solution for it. During the year 2002/03, the total number of bullying cases reported in primary and secondary schools was around 1,000, mostly involving violence. This is merely the tip of the iceberg, even though the figure represents only about 0.36% of the total primary and secondary school student population. It is generally agreed that the overall bullying situation has been under-reported.

Most bullying situations happen among friends. As we all know, they usually start with play fighting and eventually develop to involve violent behaviours, such as pouching, kicking, biting and using foul language. How much can we take and how much can society tolerate? Who is responsible - teachers, schools, parents, the bullies, society, or the media? Who are the victims, the individual and his or her family, the bullies and their families or society as a whole?

We consider that teenagers and youngsters, who are the bullies, realise the consequences of their behaviours to some extent; but they still get involved because of peer pressure. These are in line with what we have discussed about the characteristics of youth sub-culture in the last article. It is seen as a conflict between the personal construct (sub-cultural preference), in this case being the teenagers, and the social construct (societal values), the majority people. The bigger the gap is, the harder the conflict hits.

Studies in the US and European countries show that bullying in schools is closely tied to violence at home. Moreover, the media should also have a role to play in reporting violent news to the mass. These tend to shed some lights on the solution for the problem. The school, family, Police, and social service agencies should join hands to tackle the problem of bullying. We insist on ZERO TOLERANCE TO BULLYING.

- From Welfare Services Group -