Factual description of the scenario
In the last and current scholastic year , so for almost two scholastic years, a case of bullying connected with Internet times.
The boy, aged 14, has a hearing loss greater than 80 db and language, if not induced by an intense, does not occur.
After high school, according to the team of doctors who followed him also in the previous school, the boy was enrolled at the first year of high school , in the course for hotel reception.
At the beginning of the school year the situation of this student with handicap is presented by reports and monitoring sheets ,used by the class team and by other stakeholders in the school.
Teachers of the class, the headteacher, the psychologist, voluntary associations, clinical and medical team as required by laws prepare a report to present the general situation of the student.
During the scholastic year, starting from the first months, a particularly cruel act was the most repeated mobile phone to connect with the websites to show the boy pornographic photos of girls and then tell him that he could never aspire to have a girl like that just because of its handicap.
Classmates add that he could at most hope to have a girl with a severe intellectual handicap.
Attitude and behaviour of the protagonist student
The pupil is in a first class of superior level , he found himself in a class issue at the behavioral level. His special needs for the first months of the school year has eased toward him being bullied by a group of classmates.
The boy, experiencing more freedom than during the middle school, tries in his own way to fit into the group taking some negative behavior patterns towards the companions, especially girls.
The boy often offended classmates who, although accustomed to use in their foul language and "offensive", hearing the same words spoken by our student perceived them so much stronger.
Her male companions encouraged these approaches its heavy towards the girls in the class and then intervene with punitive actions against him, often denouncing the behavior.
Attitude and behaviour of the classmates
The class consists of 27 students with 6 pupils of foreign origin, a student with a disability certification . Since the beginning of the school year the teachers fight against a number of elements to be followed carefully for inappropriate behavior. The Class meeting approve a number of disciplinary sanctions for acts of verbal, non-compliance and repeated offenses, but the situation do not change a lot.
At the end of last school year, this first class merged with another for the high number of students who are not promoted or retired, and the situation is very different: the comrades have a different attitude and are in solidarity with him, interpret rather its language and are able to mediate its needs.
Attitude and behaviour of the teachers
Compared to the behavior of the student, the teachers of the class think to activate common strategies and homogeneous , but not always this is possible. The class team of teachers, through the coordinator, can only recommend to know better the main aspects of the situation. Teachers try to involve in this step of identification also the different stakeholders, the headteacher and the social services workers, but not always this is possible, for difficulties to dialogue between different actors and for lack of financial and human resources.
The teachers are not completely aware of these actions, they have news often only through the few classmates not involved in these actions, and with many difficulties of relationships .
Attitude and behaviour of the parents
In this case, the school try to evaluate how to address with parents, but it is not always easy to have a deep contact with families.
Every new step should be shared with the family, but it is not possible to organize regular meetings or specific meetings. The pupil's family maybe is aware of the situation, but the information are requested often by family itself, often the family omitted or hide any particular detail , useful to the understanding of the problem. They noticed what was happening, but they cannot modify the situation and they ask an help mainly to the school, through information and meetings.
Attitude and behaviour of the school director
The headteacher try to follow the case through his collaborators and in close contact with the parties involved, but is not always aware of the situation.
The headteacher in fact , can be aware of all problems only through the school’s workgroup for disabilities, bullying and generally the workgroup for risk at school, so sometimes communication between all these actors is not effective.
The headteacher , during the school period and also in different times, try to have also relationships with family, when requested also at individual level, but it is not always possible to contact family for individual interview , and so the relationship with family take place when the school must communicate decisions or other formal acts.
Attitude and behaviour of other actors
The other actors involved are mainly social workers, voluntary associations who normally cooperate with school. Psychologist, and clinical medical team operate inside the school, too . They operate in cooperation with teachers and family to follow the evolution of the problems, but normally they tend to exercise their role in an individual way, so they are not particularly involved in the case itself.
Attitude and behavior of the protagonist
The case presented is very common. In the Internet Times, the students are encouraged by different bad jokes posted on the Internet to humiliate the students with disabilities. How can the school help both of them, students without and with disabilities, to live together?
School time is quite important because schools are the centres of socializing people. This could be considered as a simple setting, but actually for the kids having hearing problems may not be that easy. In such kind of atmospheres, these kids, if not included in a school cannot effortlessly establish relationships with their peers. So they surely feel themselves isolated and while they are trying to behave like others, they cannot perceive and react to the situations like them.
Students - not only in the school context, but also in their everyday network of relationships - should gain awareness of the risks and consequences of the two connected facts, disability and cyberbullying.
The student must achieve a more confident attitude and try to overcome the feeling of distress caused by the observations/ behaviour of the class mates, even when they are negative or offensive. It is therefore necessary that the student will strengthen his self-awareness and will achieve the full acceptance of his handicap.
At the same time, the boy should try to become fully aware of his capabilities and should not nullify his ego at the expense of his personality.
See Guidelines School bullying prevention Guideline for Students, Step 7. What Risks Can I Find Using New Technologies
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=4&st=7
-Step 8 What I Can Do if Someone is Cyberbullying Me
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=4&st=8
-Step 9 What I Can Do if Someone is Cyberbullying a Classmate
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=4&st=9
-Step 10 How to Be Polite Using New Technologies, especially dedicated to new technologies.
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=4&st=10
Attitude and behaviour of the classmates
The group of classmates will have to learn to deal with diversity, and also understand the issues that their offensive attitudes towards the mate can cause. Students need to learn specific strategies to manage group dynamics, in order to encourage the inclusion of the boy and learn to manage their emotions related to daily experiences.
The intervention of the tutor students of classes, that is, students of the fourth year involved in the reception of the first classes was a first alarm bell of the situation that was being created and tutors intervened through training at par, a sort of " Peer Education ", where the intervention of the teachers had failed to arrive, direct action peer students found some way out, with reflections and awareness of the events that were taking place
After identification of the students with disabilities, and after becoming aware of connection with actions of cyberbullying, how will be possible to manage attitude and behavior of the classmates?
The school should teach all the students to accept each other. Nowadays in each class of our schools there is just a single student with disabilities, so it is compulsory to have as objective to support him and his family. Even more if the disability became a cause of cyberbullying, like in this case.
In the classroom, we can try to find some activities, for instance:
Organizing workshops with students, parents, teachers and psychologists, in order to present them different case studies and teach them to help each other and how to defend the bullying on the Internet.
Organizing teams of students in order to support the students with disabilities during the lessons or extracurricular activities.
Groups of students should be formed who could support students with disabilities in the classroom or during extra-curricular activities, especially students of the upper classes who, through a direct Peer Education approach, could find some way out, with the appropriate considerations, and creating the necessary awareness of the issue.
Create optimal educational conditions for all the students with disabilities, so they do not feel discriminated. For instance, by creating working group with new teaching methods as webquest.
This method of study starts with a specific topic (eg. Evolution, the atom), introduced and framed by the teacher. The job is assigned to the class, which will be divided into groups. The groups will be organized on the ' ' how ' ' to work, or on the type of study to be undertaken. At the end of the delivery deadline assigned by the teacher, each group will present their work. Presentations can be carried out in the form of multimedia work (eg. PowerPoint) or by using concept maps and posters. Every single member of the group will have to know the topics covered by the collective group. This method can be a real help to create a good climate in the classroom.
See Guidelines School bullying prevention Guideline for Students steps 2 What Can I Do if My Classmates Bully Me
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=4&st=2
-Step 4 What Can I Do if Someone Bullies One of my Classmates
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=4&st=4
-Step 5 The Most Effective Ways to Help Others
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=4&st=5
Attitude and behaviour of the teachers
In order to know better the bullying phenomenon, this must be, at the beginning, studied by the teachers and then analyzed and debated with the students. The schools must organize activities with the students in which to be provided different manifestations of the bullying phenomenon. In order to learn how they must react at the unpleasant experiences, the students need a good and clear guidance from the teachers and parents.
The teachers of the class should put into practice the educational strategies that stimulate in the students attitudes of acceptance towards the boy. At the same time, they should implement the search of external expertise to manage group dynamics.
We can realize, during daily activities in the classrooms, that everything it’s not allowed is more interesting for the children. So, we can teach them to use their smartphones but make them more sensitive and understanding to the problems of the others. We can propose a didactic use of technologies, showing them that the Internet can be their friend not an enemy. We can refer to new learning methods, as WEBQUEST, already presented before, or Flipped classroom to prove this different approach.
Finally, the digitization of schools and the development of teachers 2.0 finally open the way for the formation and education about online safety for students, when in children and minors, they absolutely need to be adequately protected in their experiences on the Internet and with cognitive tools to detect, recognize, manage and avoid potential risks online. Risks such as copyright infringement, intrusion, information leaks, inappropriate and harmful content and games, self-injury, addiction to the internet, cyber bullying, cybersex, sexting, cyber enticement and child abuse.
In contributing to the resolution of the case could be made for a sex education intervention, in order to make it clear to the class normality of certain situations, especially would serve to make it clear that disability is not a limit to live their sexuality as normal. Often teenagers and even adults think that the differently abled, as such, is exempt from practicing his sexuality.
See Guidelines School bullying prevention Guideline for Teachers
-Step 4 Perceiving the Initial Situation from Different School Perspectives
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=5&st=4
-Step 5 Giving Priority to Preventive Action Lines
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=5&st=5
-Step 7 Implementing Direct Intervention Programs
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=5&st=7
See also Step 9 Evaluating the Process and Outcome, and Establishing Improvement Proposals
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=5&st=9
Attitude and behaviour of the parents
The parents should gain awareness of the many risks and consequences of the phenomenon, not only in the school environment, but also in the wide network of their children's relationships.
See Guidelines School bullying prevention Guideline for Parents step 1 to understand the complexity of phenomenon.
This case focuses on the children who have hearing disability. The parents of the disabled kids should be aware of their situations and they have to behave them tolerantly and caringly.
The family should not experience the episodes of bullying as a defeat or a weakness of the school, rather as the starting point to overcome the difficulties that the child may have during the course of his life. Parents must support the child by instilling self-confidence in him, and ensuring a constant emotional support.
A very ambitious objective could be to teach the parents and teachers to love these children who need more attention and affection that the others.
The school must take care of training for parents, based above all on meetings, practical activities, relationships with the local community to support the students with disabilities.
See Guidelines School bullying prevention Guideline for Parents step 10 “What We Can do
Against Cyberbullying and Other Risks in Social Networks “
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=2&st=10
Attitude and behaviour of the school director
Headteachers and school directors are a key agent in the prevention and intervention against bullying, connected with the risk factor of early school leaving. As usually, they must overcome their bureaucratic and administrative role, they have to promote and encourage the actions of other agents, who are teachers, families and students.
The first step for the headteachers, in order to act properly, was to create a good system of information and communication inside the school, to reach a deep knowledge of the problem to be coped. The headteacher tried also to know also in a less formal way the situation, and encouraged all form of workgroup in the school, to promote a different awareness of the “problem” of new technologies and cyberbullying.
It has been important a cooperation with all actors involved in the problem, also with judiciary level, to start a continuous learning and training about these themes.
In fact, the headteacher, following the recommendations of the Board of the class teachers, must immediately verify that all possible procedures are activated, in order to protect the child and reassure parents. During the class teachers' meetings he can inform teachers of the risks associated with such bullying and urging increased surveillance and the presence of adults during breaks.
See Guidelines School bullying prevention Guidelines for Head Teachers
step 2, Making a Team to Develop an Anti-Bullying School Policy
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=1&st=2
step 8 Implementing direct intervention programs
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=1&st=8
step 9. Evaluating the Process and the Outcomes, and Establishing Improvement Proposals
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=1&st=9
Attitude and behaviour of other actors
The case proposed an involvement of other professionals outside of the school. The measures suggested by an approach and in order to find a positive solution requested collaboration with psychologists, but also with experts in the judicial system, to make students aware of the risks related to the actions of cyber bullying, as well as the offensive behavior towards a disabled student. Any form of bullying which appears in the school environment has been repaired as soon as possible, in order to restore the emotional comfort of all the children involved: aggressors, victims or witnesses. The children aggressed repeatedly have a low self - esteem and they do not trust the other. In fact, the psychologist who follows the guy can act on three levels: the first is organizing meetings with the class, the second addressing the teachers with whom he can find strategies to improve the climate in the classroom. The third would be to carry out interviews with the boy, so as to reassure him, thus increasing his self-esteem. It is possible to work by specific activities, as the project "Telemachus ", which provides learning support in difficult situations. The project benefits from the collaboration of teachers retire, providing hours of school time in favor of cases are difficult to handle in the classroom.
One possible strategy for policy makers is to make available more and more resources on the web, to help all those involved in the issue to learn about the phenomenon, to read documents and experiences, to interact through the shared web space, providing useful tools for families, teachers, students, social workers. The specific whole section of School Safety Net Portal could be a right example of future projects. We can find more suggestions and resources in School bullying prevention Guideline for Policy Makers
Step 8. Preventive Action Model: Whole School Policy Approach
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=3&st=8
Step 9. Direct Intervention Strategies
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/GL_guide01.php?ta=3&tg=3&st=9