Education offers hope to put stop to bullies

The State Government cannot legislate against bullying with guaranteed success

GET THE MESSAGE: North Bundaberg State High School students gather on their school oval to spell out important words ahead of National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. Picture: Max Fleet BUN190314NSH1

BULLYING, cyber or otherwise, ruins lives, at a high cost to our nation. It is only another facet of an epidemic of violence, endemic in our culture and globally prolific in all levels of society and business.

The Time's Up movement, with women taking the lead, exposes the complete ineptitude of governments and laws to protect victims of corporate and personal bullying.

The State Government cannot legislate against bullying with guaranteed success. Government laws and policies have failed to curb domestic (or relationship) violence, which will only change through education from the bottom up.

It cannot be underestimated that bullying is another euphemism for assault, be it verbal or otherwise.

Call it like it is.

Perpetrators are usually known to their victims, often coerced into a conspiracy of silence, perpetuating the abuse.

Our courts are more than lenient on perpetrators, with laws protecting the rights of bullies.

It sends a clear message to victims: don't expect change any day soon. "Dolly" Everett, 14, lived in a world where an internet audience, including her own peer group, has the ability to manipulate innocents with impunity and anonymity.

Bullying has been culturally condoned after centuries of lacking formidable challenges at a grass-roots level in every society. The silence is deafening.

Families are a microcosm of the wider world.

Children are our most vulnerable citizens. If governments and courts fail to contain it, how could a 14-year-old hope to survive this plague?

E ROWE

Marcoola