Monday, April 25, 2005

Spain addresses problem of school bullying

Today is the first day of the trial against eight secondary school children accused of bullying a Spanish schoolboy, Jokin, who committed suicide last year in San Sebastian. The trial will take place behind closed doors to protect the anonymity of the accused. The children will declare from behind a screen set up within a special courtroom set up in San Sebastian's Palace of Justice rather than in the juvenile courts where it would be more difficult to protect the identity of those on trial.

Jokin began to be a victim of bullying in his school towards the end of 2003 when he was unable to control an attack of diarrea in the classroom, to the amusement of his schoolmates. He became a joke figure and then the constant humiliation turned into violence and continued throughout the school year. During a school trip, Jokin and his schoolmates were found smoking a joint, and his friends accused Jokin of telling tales, and the violence got worse. On the first day back at school, 13th September 2004, Jokin arrived to his classroom to find the walls and desks covered with toiletpaper (exactly a year had passed since his diarrea problem) and was beaten up. His teacher made Jokin clean up the mess. Two days, and several beating-ups, later, Jokin didn't turn up at his school and his tutor contacted his parents who were unaware of the bullying their son was suffering. The parents and school agreed that Jokin would return to school on 21st September, armed with a mobile telephone so that he could ring them if he got bullied again. On 20th September Jokin wrote a message on an Internet forum site: «Libre, oh, libre.Mis ojos seguirán aunque paren mis pies» (Free oh free. My eyes will go on even though my feet will stop". In the early hours of 21st, Jokin committed suicide. The autopsy performed on his body showed clear signs of the violence he had been subject to the previous week, and the eight teenagers whose trial begins in San Sebastian today were put on immediate suspension by the school.

The case served to highlight the extent of the problem of school bullying in Spain, a country which, until recently, tended to ignore the whole issue of bullying. Infact no Spanish word exists to differentiate bullying from other kinds of harrassment or a bully from a harrasser. Since Jokin's suicide more and more articles have appeared in the press, but writers or psychologists either use the English word in italics, or find a substitute like "acoso escolar" (school harrassment) or hostigar (harrass).

Spanish schools are rarely equipped to deal with incidents of severe bullying, and it is only since Jokin's suicide that the extent of the problem is gradually becoming apparant. Since the boy's death, more and more parents have come forward to report cases of bullying and to criticise the lack of support available from schools and education authorities to address the problem and offer solutions.

According to an article written by a pedagogic researcher in El Mundo last year, no less than 48 percent of Spanish schoolchildren aged between 9 and 14 have suffered or suffer some kind of bullying. More than half of these are cases of verbal bullying, but 18 percent of the victims suffer severe physical bullying at the hands of their schoolmates.

As far as we have been able to gather, there is no official department in the Spanish Education Ministry or in regional education authorities to deal with the problem and no Internet sites available in Spain similar to those available to victims, teachers, parents and bullies in other developed countries. If any good at all is to come out of the publicity given to Jokin's tragic death, and to the trial which has started today, then resources need to be made available to teach Spanish society to come to terms with and how to deal with what is obviously a widespread problem in Spain.

10 Comments:

Anonymous said...

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10:28 PM  
Euroresidentes said...

Received in the Euroresidentes mailbox:

Good Afternoon,

Good article. School violence and bullying needs to be brought out in the open much more then it has been. Bullying will always thrive where bystanders do nothing and where authority is weak.

Every adult needs to become involved in the solution including the parents. The schools need to stop burying their heads in the sand. I'm glad to see it being addressed. If you do a follow up story, or a story on what parents can do then feel free to contact me or to pass this along to the school district.

I have a program at www.stoppingschoolviolence.com. My program (which is for parents) consists of an interactive workshop, my e-book, The Shameful Epidemic, reports on improving communication skills, building your child's self-esteem, and most importantly consulting time. Parents need another resource for help and they need to become part of the solution.

Thanks and have a great week.

Derek

Derek R. Randel
Stopping School Violence & Bullying
www.stoppingschoolviolence.com
www.parentsmartfromtheheart.com
derek@stoppingschoolviolence.com
Author of The Shameful Epidemic, The Parent Manual,& Bittersweet Moments

8:49 AM  
Mike said...

I have recently covered the suicide of Nathan Jones (http://www.michaelpeach.com/2005/04/i-have-received-email-today-from-four.html) in the UK and have been in contact with the parents of Laura Rhodes who committed suicide last year.

It seems the school system in Spain has the same chilling effect on children as does the system in the UK.

School is not a good place for children to be.

11:23 AM  
Anonymous said...

It's an awful story.

We are moving to Spain next year with our 2 children aged 11 and 13. Neither of them are very keen on moving.

I am worried about possible bullying if it is a big problem in Spain, especially at first while they are still adapting to the new country and language and their new school. I have registered them with a bilingual school, but have been told that most of the pupils there are Spanish and, although they can speak English, they play with eachother in their native tongue.

Do parent associations exist in Spain? What is the role of parents within schools?

Thanks for any information,
Lizzie.

2:55 PM  
Jane said...

For the worried parents, let me say that I really do not think that school bullying exsists in Spain to the extent as it does in the UK. My child is at school on the Costa del Sol and if there is any bullying it is certainly not to do with race. My 9 year-old has a problem in that she is constantly being kicked by a much younger child than herself, so she feels it is not right to fight back. She reported it to the teacher, but they laugh it off. Because the teacher laughed, she has how become the laughing stock of the class. This to her is worse than the kicks she got in the first place, so you can understand why children keep it to themselves.

4:36 PM  
Anonymous said...

I agree with Jane.

I have lived in Spain for 4 years now and my children (now 7 and 9) have attended out local Spanish state school quite happily, despite having no knowledge of the language when they started.

I'm aware that bullying (not severe) does happen at their school and, as a parent, I would be happy to have a role in trying to address the problem, but I am sure that the fact that my children are British does not make them a target just because they are different. Quite the opposite actually. Because English is more and more important as a skill in Spain, our children are quite a novelty and the mothers of their classmates are only too happy for their kids to spend time in our ("English") home. I'm sure the same will be true for your children, especially if you send them to a bilingual school, where English will be valued even more.

Good luck!!

Jilly.

10:08 PM  
Michael said...

Hi... We're a family from Denmark that moved to Spain last year. My wife did speak a little bit spanish - and for me sounded the spanish language just as russian. We were moving with a kid on four years.
He just started in our local Spanish state school in September and it has been a total succes from day one.

The kids at the school finds it very interesting to have a boy in their school from such an exotic place as Denmark - so for us it has been a marvellous experience to start in an spanish school.

Good luck,
Michael

9:25 AM  
Anonymous said...

Does anyone think that the problem is only in cetain areas of Spain like the tourist traps where locals feel that they are being taken over by we the British

8:43 PM  
Anonymous said...

I am moving to Calicanto Valencia next March and I have an 8 year old little girl. She is looking forward to moving to Spain even though she loves her school here in England. Although we have been advised to send her to a private school we have decided to send her to the local state school. I am now very worried that this maybe a mistake What do you say

8:48 PM  
Anonymous said...

This is a good written article.This might open peoples eyes more and make them realise, what exactly bullying can do to the victim. I am doing a project on bullying, and i have added this article into it to show people how tragic it can end up.

7:13 PM  

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