Master Rob shares his insights into school yard bullying
What is your personal experience with bullying?
“I personally experience bullying at the age of 15 when I joined the Military. I was the only boy from Canberra out of 450 boys that had gone over to Western Australia. There were nightly bashings and brutal assaults, a Royal Commission has just been completed into those, and other systemic occurrences in the Military.”
What is the action a bystander should take when they see someone getting bullies?
“A bystander can take action in a number of ways, by intervening (when safe to do so) or reporting the incident to authority. By doing nothing the bystander can also become a victim by way of guilt or they may think that they will be next. Try to imagine how the victim feels and encourage others to speak out. Remember that bullying hurts everyone from the bully, the bullying victim to the bystander.”
What are some reasons why someone might want to start bullying?
“Some children may feel insecure, and to feel stronger and better about themselves they will resort to bullying those they perceive as weaker. Other times kids become bullies to follow the crowd or to fit in with other children. It may even become learned behaviour if the child has been the target of bullying themselves, especially if the bullies were adults.”
What advise would you give to a school about bullying?
“Educate students about what bullying is: provide role playing games for the kids too perform in or watch it played out by adults. When these games are showcased, the kids will get to see first-hand what they are doing is wrong, but also see how it is affecting the other person. Educate students about how to report bullying, and provide resources that are going to make it easy to report the bullying is the first thing the school needs to do. By having these locations set aside it will be easy for children to go and report the bullying action without having to be concerned about being outed. Teach kids about what type of actions can be taken against the bully.”
Do you have any suggestions for people who are being bullied?
“Talk to friends, talk to parents, talk to teachers, tell them who, when and what has been happening to you. In addition there are kids Helplines that are also available.”
“There are also some strategies that can be tried if you are not in danger to are feeling confident.”
“Ignore the bullying, turn your back and walk away. Act unimpressed or pretend you don’t care what they say. Say “no” firmly.”
What do you think is the percentage of people involved in any form Bullying?
“In studies commissioned by the Federal Government, they show that 1 in every 4 students in Australian School is bullied, this can be in the form of Verbal, Physical to Cyber, however in 2012 evidence showed that Australia was number 1 in the world for Cyber bullying.”
What made you become interested in this topic?
“Being involved in Martial Arts as an Instructor for many years, I set up the School Program and found that there was not enough being done to help the children from a non-Martial Arts perspective. I was being constantly bombarded with question about bullying from students, I therefore decided to marry the facts and figures with the self-defence, and give the students more than just the physical side.
How serious can bullying be?
“Children take bullying very seriously, the impact can be tremendous and children can carry their concerns throughout their lives. At worst, bullying has led to suicides and even more alarming the two shooters at Columbine High School tragedy (12 students and 1 teacher dead) were bullied youngsters who retaliated.”
“I have approached these questions from a non-Martial Arts background to give you a better understanding of real-life average children, however as you will understand that Martial Arts will not only give you the combative skills to protect against bullies but the confidence to carry them out.”
“Way back when I was 15 and constantly bullied, the mechanisms were not in place to talk about bullying, the bullying with me stopped when I fought back physically, whilst not winning the fight I kept getting up, that was a sign hot the group of bullies to move on as the bully normally wins against people that stay down.”