Line between Childish Pranks and Bullying

Nino Tsotsoria

“Dreaded by all the mothers of the town, because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad – and because all their children admired him so, and delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like him. He came and went, at his own free will. Nobody forbade him to fight. In a word, everything that goes to make life precious that boy had,”- this is how Mark Twain describes one of the characters of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn who was a role model for many children. 

According to the teacher of N4 public school of Rustavi, Lela Bejoshvili, boys like Huckleberry Finn are still popular among their peers. Copying them can be considered as a sort of expression of bullying. 

“One of the fifth-graders asked when they were learning Tom Sawyer: why everybody likes Huckleberry Finn if he is so uncultured. It is good that they had this question, that confusion of values is not that outlined. However, that was a rhetorical question. In reality, we have cases, when they like this kind of children, who are swaggering and swearing in order to establish themselves. As a rule, they idolize those children who are bit uncultured and, unfortunately, rude. The behavior of these children includes elements of aggression and they have influence on other children,”_ says the teacher, Lela Bejoshvili. 

According to psychologists, bullying is a long-term oppression or abuse of a person by one or several other persons. They categorize direct and indirect bullying. Direct bullying is a physical abuse of one person by another, or taking one’s money or belongings. Indirect bullying is when a person is an outcast from social environment. Psychologist Mairam Alania thinks main feature of bullying is an aggression, which is observed in children since little age. 

“Aggression is a normal thing if it does not harm others. Bullying is purposeful aggression, which results in physical or material damage of victims, also their isolation. We observe aggression and bullying from small age, we detect bullying in kindergartens and in primary schools. The most intensive bullying is detected from 4th to 9th grade,”_ says psychologist Mariam Alania.

Aggressive children, bullies have an excessive energy and do not know the limits of socially acceptable behavior. According to Mariam Alania, they do not know the other ways to establish themselves. 

The director of N4 public school of Rustavi, Mamuka Khamkhadze thinks that bullying is a current problem of school system. According to him, the solution is to inform students, teachers and parents. 

“I think, more or less, this problem always existed. A student or group of students make fun of their peers because of their clothes, different haircut, speaking style, tone, gestures or voice and this is one way of bullying. The problem is that, sometimes, even teachers are not able to notice when childish behavior ends and bullying takes place. What are childish pranks and where is the line between childish behavior and aggression.  Our mentality is not ready for this and teachers have little information regarding it. Thus, awareness of teachers and working with them on this subject is very important,”- told Mamuka Khamkhadze to humanrights.ge.

According to school psychologist, because of lack of information this has no serious feedback. They do not even know that this or that behavior is bullying. They do not address to us often. Children come to us, psychologists, only by request of teachers. This happens when teachers notice facts of bullying in a classroom. Based on school experience, we have two types of bullying. One is cyber bullying, related to computer and social networks and the second one is, when children invent some stories and accuse each other. This way a child is suppressed, and becomes a victim of bullying,”-said school psychologist, Nino Janashia. 

According to her, it is not easy to resolve the issue of bullying. This problem needs scheduled work and preventive measures. 

“The most important is to provide information. There is no way to fix this problem easily. It is necessary to inform them periodically, so children can realize what damage their behavior can cause, how their classmates can be stressed. Preventive measures are required to eliminate repetitive behaviors, so the same facts will not be frequent. However, it is almost impossible to eliminate the revealed incidents completely,” – said Nino Janashia. 

Official research on bullying in Georgia was conducted in 2007. According to national research of UNICEF on violence in Georgian schools, the percentage level of physical and psychological bullying in schools is high. Children and teenagers pointed out that there are cases of psychological and physical violence at school starting from pushing each other to wounding. 

According to research of UNICEF in 2012, which studied violence at schools, 80% of interviewed children in Georgia have been a victim of physical or psychological violence at least once in their lives. 

However, after establishing Office of Resource Officers of Educational Institutes in 2008 by Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, cases of physical violence at schools have been decreased. 

“Bullying is a protracted process. Resource Officers detect only physical violence. When we detect violence, we immediately take measures against it. The violence nowadays is often cyber or psychological. We can detect cyber violence only when children express aggression, when they have problems, when they are sad or when there is a change in their behavior. We cannot notice cyber violence at the beginning. As for the psychological violence, it is almost impossible for Resource Officers to notice it. However, it can be notices by schoolteachers. Psychological pressure takes place outside the school as well as in the classrooms. Teachers or parents have to raise the alarm in these cases,” _ said the Deputy Head of Office of Resource Officers, Levan Zardiashvili. 

In 2012-2013 UNICEF published the research that studied the attitude of society towards to violence. According to this study, 60% of Georgian population thinks that strict methods for upbringing the child are more effective than nonviolent methods. According to psychologists, the violence used against children might become a reason to become bullies. 

“Aggression in children, often, results from the violence used against children. Aggression that is accumulated by trauma requires relief; as a result, a child finds someone weaker and abuses them. Style of education impacts on accumulation and management of aggression. When children, instead of support, get suppression from their parents, not to mention physical punishment, they feel oppressed and if they have a chance, they will try to distract this aggression somewhere,” _ told psychologist Mariam Alania to humanrights.ge.

According to psychologist, the role of adults in resolving the issue of bullying is crucial. However, intervention shall not be directive and oriented on prohibition. 

“There are methods that, on the one hand, help children to understand what is bullying and what can it cause, and, on the other hand, inform them the rules and limits of socially acceptable behavior. In addition to realizing the issue, they have to be able to take responsibility on instant and future results,”_ said Mariam Alania. 

The school director Mamuka Khamkhadze talks about the importance role of teachers in these cases. According to him, teachers must work with bullies and victims of bullying, after classes. However, first we need to properly inform the teachers. 

“It would be good if there were special trainings, courses or programs. It is possible to include this kind of chapters in education plan, I mean Civic Education. None of the schools can say that there is no bullying, that is impossible. Because bullying generally is a part of our society, so how can it not be in schools. Important thing is for schools to see this problem and fight against it with lawful measures,”_ told Mamuka Khamkhadze to humanrights.ge.

According to Deputy Head of Office of Resource Officers, official statistics for bullying do not exist, because Office of Resource Officers record violence only when violent acts take place and bullying is not separated. The researches that were conducted by international organizations do not show optimistic results.

“Children who are victims of violence come to us, sometimes it is bullying and sometimes it is a particular violent act. Quite often, bullies are victims of domestic violence by themselves. Our society is not ready yet to take this subject seriously. You can hear it very often that they say, “Why the fuss, they are children and they can manage it by themselves”. I think that this requires methodical, lasting and systematic work and this work should be implemented not only at schools, but also on the level of education and state, because bullying does not start only in schools. I think this problem requires systemic approach from the state,” –said the Deputy Head of Office of Resource Officers, psychologist, Levan Zardiashvili.

Teachers Professional Development Centre provides trainings for teachers on this subject and if desired, they teach “Management of classroom and effective strategies for conflict resolution”. Teachers are informed on cases of bullying and their solution, within this training. According to Mamuka Khamkhadze, in order to spread the information, the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia has prepared a short movie, which was shown at schools. Teachers and students were provided with additional information on this issue as well. 

The international Anti-bullying Day is celebrated on May 4. This year, Georgia also celebrated the Anti-bullying Day. The ministry of Education and Science of Georgia participated in it and together with students engaged in the anti-bullying campaign.