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School Bullying

School bullying has many forms. Bullying may be visible or something that cannot be seen or identified as a bullying situation at first sight. The biggest challenges for teachers are carefully hidden bullying situations, which can be part of games or everyday communication, for instance. In addition to the school building, school bullying may occur, for example, on the Internet, via text messages or outside the school. However, the list below provides only the most common forms of bullying.

Attention! If you know, think or feel that someone is being bullied, you should talk to the bullying victim and provide him or her information on Kouluturvaa information page helpline.

Insulting, name-calling:
The most common form of bullying is name-calling, using all kinds of insults and pejorative names. At first, it may seem like a game, but when it continues, it may become unpleasant and harassing. Insulting and offending must be intervened and quite often, these forms of bullying are easily identifiable, unless such messages are transmitted via digital devices.

Repelling:
Repelling is a very common form of bullying. The bully may try to repel the victim of bullying from the general interaction with companions. That may be direct repelling, where the bully does not want to choose the victim to the same group or team with himself or herself. But repelling can also be indirect. In case of indirect repelling, the bully arranges things so that the end result is pushing away the victim. Intervening repelling may be complicated, especially in case of indirect repelling.

Cyberbullying:
Cyberbullying is a new and rapidly spreading form of school bullying. Cyberbullying is one of the most sever forms of school bullying, as the bully can bully the victim at any given time and it is not possible to escape from it even at non-school time. Cyberbullying has also a lower threshold than regular school bullying. The problematic aspect of cyberbullying is that the bully may act anonymously and continue bullying for a long time without being caught.

Violence:
Violence is the most serious and severe form of school bullying, as using violence is violating an individual’s physical integrity. Bullying can start with lighter forms such as insulting and name-calling, repelling and cyberbullying. If bullying continues, it could escalate into violence, such as beating. If the bully uses violence, it is necessary to immediately intervene. Our helpline has received calls from bullying victims who have experienced violence, and where such situations of violence have not been intervened, as such acts have been taken place in locations where no school staff happened to be close. Violence is notices and in such situations, the bully is caught, but obviously, he or she wants to keep his activities in secret, which is why the bully is looking for remote locations for his actions. Signs of violence include, for example, damaged clothing, bruises, swellings or partially torn out hair.