No More Bullying (Part 2)
Don't give up, help is at hand

We again focus on the problem of bullying in this issue. This time, the junior writers share their own experiences of bullying.

The junior writers offer ideas for preventing bullying, including "Speak frankly with an open mind" and "Be tolerant of others who are somehow different from you."

We also share some efforts designed to prevent bullying and provide support to victims.

One school is striving to promote good relationships among its students to prevent bullying and the harm that it causes. Some adults are working to listen to children's concerns and monitor websites that incite bullying. Other adults provide a place that serves as a substitute for school when students have been the target of bullying at their regular schools.

Discussion by junior writers

What sort of bullying have you experienced or observed? What solutions might there be to this problem? We asked Nobuo Yamazaki, 53, the principal of a "free school" in Hiroshima, to lead our discussion. (In Japan, a "free school" is a school for students who are unable to attend a traditional school.) The participants are Shiori Kusuo, 16, Masashi Muro, 17, Minako Iwata, 16, and Yusuke Suemoto, 13.

At what point does it become "bullying"?

Ostracizing someone / Attacking their body or mind

--How would you define bullying?

Participant A: Bullying involves violence, such as hitting or kicking someone or using language in a violent way. In other cases a person is completely ignored. I think bullying is an action intended to exclude someone.

B: I think bullying is behavior that seeks to hurt someone or a certain group. Sometimes a group targets an individual; other times, one individual bullies another.

C: If it happens only once, it might be considered play. But if it continues for much longer, it can turn into bullying.

Why does it happen?

Outlet for stress / Self-consciousness toward others

--Why do you think bullying occurs?

A: I think they find an outlet for their stress through bullying. If they still feel this stress after speaking with someone about it, then they may turn to violence, regardless of what the other person has done. It's a way to expel emotion, by striking out.

D: Ignorance can lead a person to have feelings of aggression about someone else.

B: When someone is trying to stand out, and another person presents an obstacle to this, they might begin bullying that person. This is why bullying often occurs in junior high school, because students in junior high tend to be self-conscious. For example, maybe you play the piano but you run into someone who plays the piano better than you. I think these feelings of jealousy can have a very negative impact.

C: Bullying can even be a way of reaching out to someone when you don't want to be alone, to make a connection to someone.

--Have you ever experienced bullying or observed someone being bullied?

A: Yes, one days my friends at cram school suddenly stopped speaking to me. I've also seen someone being bullied, but I wasn't able to speak up to stop it.

B: I was bullied by someone when I was in the brass band club and I stopped going to school. After the problem was resolved, before I knew what I was doing, I started bullying that person back.

D: I was once a target of bullying and it made me angry and I took it out on a friend. I did it as a response to being bullied, so I wasn't really aware of what I was doing, but my friend said that I had become a bully myself.

How did you overcome it?

Finding a comfortable place outside of school / Talking to a friend

--How did you overcome the episode of bullying?

B: When I had stopped going to school, I first received support to continue studying from home. When I returned to school, the teacher of the brass band club told me that only people in harmony can create appealing music. At that point, I realized I had a more important purpose.

A: In my case, one of the friends who had been bullying me came to me and we talked. It gave me a chance to improve the situation.

--Why is it so difficult to stop bullying when you see it?

A: I'm afraid that if I speak up, I could become the next target of the bullying. I'm also worried that I could end up being part of the bullying, too.

C: Once I was able to prevent an incident of bullying. A friend would always choose between me and another friend, and exclude the other one. One day, that friend said to me, "Let's do 'rock, paper, scissors' and the loser has to say 'I hate you' to him." I lost, but I didn't want to say I hated him, so instead I said that I liked him. The friend who proposed the game then said the same thing. If I had said I hated him, it would have become bullying.

How can we stop bullying?

Reach out for help / Speak frankly to your friends

--What can be done to prevent bullying?

B: Before I started covering this subject, I thought that it was better not to say anything about being bullied. I thought it would just make the problem worse. But after conducting some interviews about it, I realized that it's important to reach out to others. Also, if we can't stand up to bullying by ourselves, we can speak out along with others.

D: We need to be able to speak frankly with our friends about their good points and bad points. It's important to build friendships in which we can express our feelings honestly.

C: If someone's personality is different from mine, but I can see the differences as "interesting," then this attitude will help prevent bullying.

Efforts to prevent bullying

Free School
Support children's individuality
in a free space

Nobuo Yamazaki (center) laughs with children at his free school. (Photo by Miyu Sakata, 13)

A "free school" is a place designed for students who aren't able to attend school because of bullying or other circumstances. In Hiroshima, "Yugakukan" is one such school. There are 38 students who come to this facility and study at their own pace.

Nobuo Yamazaki, the principal, used to be a teacher at a private high school in Shimane Prefecture. Because he believes it's more important to respect each student's individuality than turn out exemplary students who always obey their teachers, he founded a free school. Currently, 35 students, up to age 35, attend the free school with the aim of earning a high school equivalency diploma. Three junior high school students go there as well. At the school, students can freely pursue their own interests. When they have concerns, they can receive support.

One 16-year-old boy had difficulty communicating with others as a result of being bulled in junior high. After he began going to the free school, though, he learned to speak frankly with the teachers. He says he now tries to initiate conversations himself.

Another student, a 17-year-old girl who hasn't attended a regular school since her second year of junior high, told us about studying in the United States for a month, on the advice of Mr. Yamazaki. In America she met a variety of people who were actively pursuing their goals and she came away inspired to be more active, too.

The two students pointed out the advantages of studying at a free school, saying such things as "It gives us the chance to challenge ourselves" and "We can study freely." Mr. Yamazaki remarked: "I am trying to create a place where students will respect each others' individuality and can take their time in deciding how to return to society." (Minako Iwata, 16)

Peer Support
Training for interaction with others

A students from Futaba Junior High School (center) helps a second grader in math.

Futaba Junior High School, in Hiroshima, has been involved in "peer support" for the past five years. The junior high students work with elementary school children to help prevent bullying and keep them in school. The aim of "peer support" is to develop communication skills and nurture compassion for others.

"Peer support" consists of four parts: training, planning, support activities and supervision.

Training is carried out with groups of junior high students. For example, when a student teaches someone how to fold a paper crane, they should try to think about the learner's feelings in terms of their response: 1) the learner should make eye contact with the student, 2) the learner should interact with the student, and 3) the learner should be given independence in completing the task.

In their support activities, the junior high students go to preschools and elementary schools. At elementary schools, they take part in classes and help children understand their lessons. After these activities, they review the visit. They think about whether they were able to communicate well with the children and, if they had any difficulty, they consider how to improve for next time.

By offering the children words of encouragement like "Good job!" and "You're doing much better now!", and seeing the children respond with delight, the junior high students feel needed.

The principal of Futaba Junior High School, Nobuho Takabata, 52, told us: "It's important to build good relationships to prevent bullying, not simply conduct questionnaires and offer counseling." (Miyu Sakata, 16)

Web Patrol
Monitor and report on
"underground school websites"

Since October, a non-profit organization in Shizuoka Prefecture, called "e-Lunch," has begun patrolling the internet to monitor websites that are likely to cause troubles, such as "underground school websites."

When they receive a request from a private high school, they patrol the internet twice a week, one hour each time. They search for underground websites by accessing bulletin boards that are popular with junior high and high school users. Although the names of schools or users are often concealed, such bulletin boards often have links to underground websites.

If e-Lunch finds an underground website, they don't delete the website on their own. Instead, they report their finding to the school that made the request. The school then decides how to handle the underground website. Requests to e-Lunch come in from outside Shizuoka Prefecture, too.

The organization also holds presentations for students, from elementary school to high school age, on internet safety. They inform parents, too, about the benefits of internet use as well as negative aspects like underground websites.

The director of e-Lunch, Naoko Matsuda, 48, told us: "We want to do everything we can to prevent children from committing suicide as a result of online bullying." (Reika Konno, 15)

Ombudsperson
Supporters outside school

Kawanishi City in Hyogo Prefecture has put in place a system called "Ombudsperson for Childrens' Rights" to hear the concerns of victims of bullying and provide support for solutions.

Currently, two university professors and one lawyer head up the program. They receive reports from counselors who are consulted by phone or in person and they discuss the problems to come up with possible solutions and ideas for support. Their recommendations and views are then presented to city government bodies for action.

There are four counselors. They listen to the children and share their requests with parents and teachers. When they speak to the children, they don't ask directly about bullying; rather, through chatting and playing games, they wait for the children to begin talking about these matters by themselves.

The program was launched in April 1999. Its office is located in city hall and there is another counseling room outside city hall for children to conveniently visit.

Norio Morisawa, 36, the head counselor, says, "We would like to provide support for children that can empower them to resolve their problems." (Miyu Sakata, 16)

No More Bullying (Part 2)Don't give up, help is at hand

No More Bullying (Part 2)
Don't give up, help is at hand