A Sum of Situations Leading to Early School Leaving
A Case Scenario on School Bullying
The Case Scenario
Factual description of the scenario
Juan is a fifteen year old boy, he is a gipsy. His family situation was very complicated, he did not have many financial resources and the family atmosphere was not ideal for a student. After many problems and arguments between his parents, they decided to split and rebuild their lives with other partners. This is when his parents decide that Juan will live with other relatives. From that moment, the young man begins to live a life even more complicated; he often sleeps out, sometimes even on the street and he also feels alone.
These changes in the life of Juan have serious consequences, for example he begins to go to school without washing and with dirty and unkempt clothes. Also some addictions to snuff and other substances are evident.
Attitude and behaviour of the protagonist student
Juan is very smart. However, he only uses his intelligence when motivated by something, otherwise, if teachers do not pay attention to his motivation, he does not put any interest in the school activities. Juan´s teachers emphasize that it is very difficult for him to work or pay attention on a task for more than ten minutes. He is constantly distracted, causing disruptions during the classes development and disturbing his mates.
Juan is a guy who has a very challenging and disruptive attitude. He never obeys the teacher neither respect the rules of the school. Always he has to get away with it, if not, he does not feel satisfied. When Juan gets angry, he often shows "rage" or "anger", feelings accumulated after living so many difficult moments in his life. These feelings usually are clearly addressed to teachers, educational personal, police and adults, in general.
Attitude and behaviour of the classmates
Juan’s classmates do not feel very attached to him. They believe that Juan only disturb and they often complain that the teacher has a more flexible attitude with him. They do not like that Juan always wants to be right and if they do not pay attention to him, he tries to get it, by doing bad behaviors such as stealing their belongings.
Nowadays, they are asking to teachers specific steps to find solutions to end this situation. Many of them are afraid of Juan because he is unpredictable and they feel Juan is not the only one who needs help. Juan´s classmates do not understand his situation neither his reactions.
The majority of them does not know Juan´s real situation and usually judge him as a bad person, someone who just wants to hurt other people.
Attitude and behaviour of the teachers
Juan´s teachers know his real family situation. This is the reason why they have decided to focus all of their efforts on helping him. First, they tried to understand the story deeply in detail. Second, they decided that it is very important that teachers have a close and friendly attitude with him in order to show him their support and assistance, within established limits, i.e., without exceeding their role as teachers or tutors. Among the goals of helping Juan, teachers want Juan to go to school regularly and improve his relationships with his mates.
Although teachers were trying to help, everything they did could not end the bad behavior of Juan. So they decided to seek help from the school psychologist and the director, so that they could help too in improving Juan´s situation.
Attitude and behaviour of the parents
Juan's family is not exactly a model family. It's a dysfunctional family, divorced parents with new partners and new lives, in which Juan has no place. Although parents share custody, Juan often lives with people different from his family without taking responsibility for his education.
Therefore, Juan has decided to start making a living autonomously. Like all teenage boys, an age of transition, it is very important to support parents in enabling their sons to grow as balanced people. Having a home gives teens a primary security for their development and that in Juan’s case this is not possible. These events adversely affect student behavior.
Attitude and behaviour of the school director
Given the above, both the tutor and the school psychologist decided to report to the director about the difficult situation that the student lived. Then the professional director felt it was necessary to refer the case to social affairs and also decided that the school provided him psycho-pedagogical support, in order to improve Juan´s situation both academically and personally.
Attitude and behaviour of other actors
The attitude and involvement of the school psychologist are very important to Juan. He has the responsibility of providing the student with psych educational support. It is an essential part in such cases.
After detecting the difficulty or particular difficulties that Juan has, in order to engage in a joint effort, the psychologist prepared a plan of action and intervention, which was agreed with the Juan’s teachers and tutor.
The general lines of action they have been focusing on are: to find the potential attachment figure for the better development of Juan, to establish channels of communication with his parents so that they start considering Juan as their main priority and so that they begin to develop positive habits in Juan´s life.
Strategy to Address the Situation
Attitude and behavior of the protagonist
Attitude and behaviour of the classmates
Attitude and behaviour of the teachers
Attitude and behaviour of the parents
Attitude and behaviour of the school director
Attitude and behaviour of other actors
20 December 2014
Final Partners’ meeting
The fourth partners’ meeting took place in Florence (IT) on 15 December 2014. The meeting had the objective to check the activities carried out since the third meeting of the project and share and assess the in progress results. A special focus has been dedicated to the presentation of the strategies to solve the case scenarios.