Shielding children from bullying

NAME calling can leave scars deeper than any wound. The ISPCC’s Shield campaign is a directly focused endeavour to support schools, parents, teachers and students in standing up against bullying, developing positive responses and not accepting such negative behaviours as normal or tolerable.

In 2013, Childline volunteers answered 8,059 calls related to physical, cyber and verbal bullying. Terrifying stories of fear, relentless teasing and intimidation were dealt with.

Verbal Bullying can leave children feeling angry, frightened, and powerless. When a child is unable to share their feelings with someone else it can leave them emotionally exhausted and bruised. Verbal attacks can be highly personal. They can be directed towards a child’s family, race, colour, creed or religion. Malicious rumours are often started which are an indirect form of bullying. When any of this occurs, a child’s power of concentration can suffer which greatly affects their ability to learn.

As a part of the campaign and to raise much needed funds to continue to work on the issue of bullying, the ISPCC will hold its National Day of Action on Friday.
The ISPCC is committed to helping children deal with bullying, one word at a time, one school at a time, one child at a time.

For more information about the Shield campaign, contact Suzanne on 085 804 2715 or go to o: www.ispcc.ie.