WHS support Anti-Bullying Week & Pink Shirt Day
Whanganui High School support Anti-Bullying Week and Pink Shirt Day.
Bullying-Free New Zealand Week 14-18 May and Pink Shirt Day on 18 May 2018.
The theme of this year’s ‘Bullying-Free New Zealand Week’ from May 14 to 18 is ‘Let’s talk about it’ and the week provides a great opportunity for everyone, especially members of a school community to talk about what bullying means to each individual. The recommendation is - Don't wait for bullying to happen, to talk about it!
Schools that encourage respect, value opinions, celebrate difference and promote positive relationships, make it difficult for bullying behaviour to thrive or be tolerated. To achieve this, it needs everyone – school staff, students, trustees, parents, whānau and communities – talking about the issue and working together.
The week concludes with Pink Shirt Day on Friday, May 18 on which everyone can celebrate their commitment to stop bullying by wearing a pink shirt. Celebrated annually around the globe, Pink Shirt Day began in Canada in 2007 when two students took a stand against homophobic bullying, mobilising their whole school, after a peer was bullied for wearing a pink shirt.
In New Zealand, Pink Shirt Day aims to create schools, workplaces and communities where all people feel safe, valued and respected.
What is Bullying?
Bullying is when someone keeps doing or saying things to have power over another person.
We all think we know bullying when we see it, but bullying can also be something we don’t see. Often, people who experience it feel invisible.
Calling someone names, saying or writing nasty things about them, leaving them out of activities, not talking to them, threatening them, making them feel uncomfortable or scared, taking or damaging their things, hitting or kicking them or making them do things they don’t want to do, are all forms of bullying.
Generally bullying has the following features:
• It is repeated – this may be single acts with different targets or many acts with the same target.
• It involves a power imbalance – this means that there is an unequal relationship between the target and the bully, this could be because of physical size, age, gender or social status. By not stopping bullying we increase this power imbalance.
• It is harmful.
There are four main types of bullying:
• Physical – hitting and punching.
• Verbal – teasing, taunting, unwanted threatening, homophobic or racist remarks and name-calling.
• Social – ignoring or excluding, spreading rumours or gossiping, withholding friendship.
• Cyber – repeated threats, unkind remarks or criticisms sent electronically.
Bullying may be directed towards people based on their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion or physical appearance.
No matter what the reason is, nobody deserves to be bullied.
Why do some people bully others?
Just as there are many reasons why someone might bully someone else:
• They feel unhappy.
• They have been the target of bullying themselves.
• They want to feel important or powerful.
• They don’t realise how their behaviour harms others.
• They believe being different is a bad thing.
Labelling someone who bullies as a “bad person” isn’t right or helpful. While the bullying behaviour isn’t okay, someone who bullies others often needs our help and support too.
Bullying in the workplace.
“Workplace bullying affects between 15 and 20 per cent of the workforce.” (New Zealand Work Research Institute Director, Professor Tim Bentley, 2014).
Getting help
Talk to someone
1737 – Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor.
• Youthline – 0800 37 66 33, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz for young people, and their parents, whānau and friends.
• What’s Up – 0800 942 8787 (0800 WHATSUP), www.whatsup.co.nz for 5–18 year olds. Phone counselling is available Mon-Fri 12pm-11pm and Sat-Sun 3pm-11pm. Online chat is available 7pm–10pm daily.
• Kidsline – 0800 54 37 54 (0800 KIDSLINE) for children up to 14 years of age. Available 24/7. Between 4-9pm calls are answered by specially trained Year 12 & 13 students.
• Samaritans – 0800 726 666 for confidential support to anyone who is lonely or in emotional distress 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• Suicide Crisis Helpline – 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) for people in distress and people who are worried about someone else.
• Lifeline – 0800 543 354 for counselling and support
• Depression Helpline – 0800 111 757 for support from trained counsellors.
Get support online
• thelowdown.co.nz – visit the website or free text 5626 support for young people experiencing depression or anxiety.
• Common Ground – www.commonground.org.nz for advice about supporting a friend or classmate.
• Netsafe – www.netsafe.org.nz for advice on how to stay safe online or call 0508 638 723.
• Depression.org.nz includes The Journal, a free online self-help tool, and includes specific advice on helping someone at work.
River City Press 10/5/18