Category: W.Midlands TV
Date: 22.02.2005
Printable version
Inside Out,
大象传媒 ONE (West Midlands),
7.30pm, Monday 28 February
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Every seven seconds a pupil, somewhere in Britain, becomes a victim of bullying.
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The problem is so bad in the Midlands that one police force is asking school children to text them directly from their mobile phones to ask for help.
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Warwickshire Police force is the first in the country to use the child-friendly technology.
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Deputy Chief Constable Derek Cake explains: "The scheme enables young people to use their mobile phones to text a message about bullying or racism to a confidential line - this is then passed on to the relevant agency."
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The Government has become so concerned with the extent of the problem that it has recruited celebrities to take part in its anti-bullying campaign.
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This uses a video featuring pop stars and celebrities driving home the message.
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Birmingham-born Radio 1 DJ Emma B is helping with the campaign: "The way in which people get bullied is really developing as technology develops.
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"People are using the internet, email and mobile phones. It can be really wicked, some of the things that go on - kids using their camera-phones to video other kids getting beaten up and then texting or emailing it around to other friends."
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The Warwickshire police initiative came too late to help eight-year-old
Ross from Bedworth with the bullying he faced.
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His mum, Rosemary, did not realise anything was wrong at first but then she started to notice the signs.
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She says: "He was outgoing, he would join anything, have a go at anything. He was just a really nice boy.
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"Then he started to go really quiet. He was coming home with more and more bruises up his body and we realised it couldn't just be football.
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"And to see that, it was so upsetting, I just didn't know what I could do. I would put my arms round him and love him but you could see it wasn't enough."
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Ross remembers only too well the boy who bullied him: "I was scared and frightened to go to school and I was just thinking what he was going to do to me. I was getting bullied, he pulled faces and called me names and kept on hitting me."
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After 18 months of constant bullying one day it became too much for Ross: "I didn't want to go school then I ran into the kitchen and got a knife from the drawer. Then my mum came running in and saw me with a knife."
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For Rosemary, this was the final straw: "It hit me then that he wanted to commit suicide it had got that much for him... this is how bad the bullying has got that he just doesn't want to live anymore.
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"It's just hard to believe... While I stood there I saw the seven years of his life actually flash before my eyes...
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"I asked him to put the knife down and come to me and he did. If he hadn't done that I don't know what I would have done next."
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Rosemary decided enough was enough and moved Ross to another school where he is doing well.
Sadly, Ross is not alone.
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A staggering half of all secondary school children and a quarter of those at primary school say they have been bullied in the last year alone.
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With this dramatic rise, it is no surprise that around 1,500 children have been counselled about bullying by Child Line West Midlands in the last 12 months.
