PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator DATE: 2005.11.16 EDITION: Final SECTION: Opinion PAGE: A17 BYLINE: Lee Prokaska SOURCE: The Hamilton Spectator WORD COUNT: 367 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We must stop school bullying -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It leaves the victim feeling alone and isolated, with nowhere to turn for help. It can lower self-esteem, cause sleep difficulties, lead to trouble keeping up with and excelling at school work. Bullying is bad. Bullying is unacceptable. And if it takes calling in the police to get the point across, so be it. Toronto police swept into a Catholic high school on Monday, pulling 14 students from their classrooms and arresting them on charges of sexual assault and harassment of a 16-year-old girl. Two others had been arrested earlier. We won't know the outcome of these charges until they go through the court system. But the fact these arrests have occurred at all should shake us up. The fact the arrests occurred during Bullying Awareness Week tells us there is still so much work to be done in the area of bullying. There are some startling, scary aspects to the Toronto situation. The fact that it took the victim so long -- she is alleged to have suffered 15 months of abuse -- to disclose the alleged bullying highlights the isolation a victim can feel. That such a large number of students were allegedly involved is frightening. We must remember students are not the only victims of bullying in our schools. Teachers, too, report bullying from parents, superiors and colleagues as well as from students. Schools and school boards must be proactive in their approach to bullying, making specific efforts to ensure those who are bullied don't feel alone with the problem, whether they are students or teachers. Certainly, many schools have instituted anti-bullying programs and that's a good thing. Clearly, those efforts must continue and be strengthened, particularly if we want to see behaviour changes in young students. Bullying is not someone else's problem. It's an issue that has the potential to affect us all in some way. It's not something we can afford to ignore as a society. We must continue to insist that bullying will not be tolerated in our schools. We must put our money where our mouths are by continuing to support anti-bullying programs. We must keep pushing to ensure our schools are safe for students and teachers. THE FACTS * Young people who are scared have increased trouble learning * Bullying can be physical, social or verbal * Bullying occurs in school playgrounds every seven minutes and once every 25 minutes in class * Peers are present 85 per cent of the time when bullying occurs * Bullying will stop within 10 seconds most of the time when someone else steps in to be a friend to the victim Source: www.bullying.org