“Bullying is for wimps” (Bullying é para fracos)
Portugal’s PSP police has launched a nationwide operation in schools today dubbed ‘Bullying is for wimps’ as well as promoting a social media campaign to increase awareness of the phenomenon and encourage pupils to reject it.
In a statement, the PSP explains that in the 2023/24 school year, of the more than 2,900 criminal incidents recorded by its Escola Segura (Safe School) teams assigned to schools, 134 were related to bullying and 30 to cyberbullying.
This year’s operation runs until October 25 and covers schools from the primary years (ages 6-10) to the third cycle (ages 13 to 15), as well as secondary schools (ages 15 to 18).
In addition to awareness-raising activities – aimed at pupils, parents and guardians, teachers and teaching assistants – there is a social media campaign sharing content on how to identify the phenomenon and help victims.
Sunday marked World Anti-Bullying Day, but the PSP emphasises that the fight against bullying cannot be “an isolated date” or aimed at a restricted group of people” as responsibility lies with the whole community.
The word bullying has been adopted into Portuguese from English, to describe “acts of physical or psychological violence, intentional and repeated, practised by one or more people in the context of an unequal power relationship, causing pain and anguish to the victim or victims.
“Many children and young people have to deal with this problem on a daily basis, which can interfere negatively and have a major impact on their physical, emotional and psychological growth,” explains the PS in its statement today.
In an increasingly digital world, associated with the growing use of new technologies at an earlier stage in the lives of children and young people, bullying has taken on new forms, particularly in the field of social networks, with the latter phenomenon now known as cyberbullying.
This type of victimisation can go on for a long time before it is noticed and/or reported, as it can occur covertly or be downplayed, contributing significantly to the deterioration of feelings of safety, especially within the school community.
As well as increasing awareness of these phenomena, the PSP operation aims to increase the feeling of intolerance and rejection towards bullying practices and foster confidence in authorities’ ability to intervene and deal effectively with the problem.
The campaign also aims to capture the attention of parents, carers and other witnesses, increasing their confidence in reporting bullying to ‘Escola Segura’ police officers to help solve the problem.
In the last school year 2023/2024 alone, more than 6,600 actions were carried out (up 6.8% on the previous school year), covering a total of 132,307 pupils.
In the statement released today, the PSP calls for all situations of bullying to be reported, at any police station or by emailing escolasegura@psp.pt.
LUSA
