Beatbullying’s ‘The Big March’
According to a report from the charity Beatbullying, 70 per cent of children feel unsafe at school with as many as 17 per cent of under 14 year olds considering carrying a weapon to feel safe.
Chief executive of beat bullying, Emma-Jane Cross, said:“For such a large number of our children and young people to fear for their safety either in school or online is utterly unacceptable and there must be action now before lives are destroyed and even lost.”
The research comes as Beatbullying have announced ‘The Big March’, an event which is set to take place on 15th November to mark the beginning of anti-bullying week. The event will be a march with a difference and instead of a physical protest march through a city it will instead be a global online protest held across numerous partner websites, to deliver a virtual petition to government asking for help to protect children and young people from bullying and harassment.
Avatars created by children, parents, teachers and celebrities such as Aston Merrygold from JLS, Alesha Dixon and the Saturdays, will all march across partner websites for children’s right’s.
Recommendations from Beatbullying include legislation in the form of a School Safety Bill, a Cyber Bullying Act to protect children online and the creation of an inter-departmental Bullying Review – a culmination of government, university and charity figures researching bullying and how to best tackle it.
The research from Beatbullying also revealed that 81 per cent of children felt that bullying should be made a crime and half felt that no action would be taken by their school if they reported an incident of bullying.
If you feel like you are the victim of bullying either at work at school or in any other situation then it is important that you address the issue and seek help. Confide in someone who can take action if the situation persists and seek counselling if you feel unable to deal with the situation on your own.
If you would like to find out more about how counselling could help bullying then please visit our fact sheet here, or visit our homepage where you can use the search tool to locate a qualified professional in your local area.