School
bullying is getting worse
A Bullying in Czech schools is “getting worse,” the Education Ministry
admits, with almost one in two children a victim, and teachers who are also
being targeted blame the ministry for lack of protection. “Bullying and violence
in our schools is a serious problem,” said Education Ministry spokesman Tomáš
Bouška, who defines bullying as “targeted and repeated physical and
psychological attacks against individuals or groups of pupils who are for
various reasons unable to defend themselves.” And Bouška believes the spread of
technology has made it worse. “We have seen new forms of bullying, particularly
through mobile phones and the Internet,” he said. “The situation is getting
worse.” The problem is compounded by the lack of up-to-date figures from the Education Ministry, but the last comprehensive study by the ministry in
2005 revealed 40 percent of children have faced bullying at some point.
B A February report by the O2 Foundation and the
Aisis Civic Association found at least 10 percent of children have been victims
of cyber-bullying in the past six months alone, with 78 percent of the
aggressors coming from the same class or school as the victim. “Cyber-bullying
is likely to increase in the future along with children's growing computer
literacy,” said Jana Udatná, manager of the 02 Foundation's “Minimization of
Bullying” project.
C The most common method of abuse stems
from mobile phone messages, which make up 68 percent of all technology-related
bullying. Attacks also come in the form of instant-messaging programs and
threatening e-mails, as well as on social networking sites like Facebook and
MySpace. Traditional forms of abuse classified as bullying are physical
attacks, blackmailing, theft, damage to personal property, verbal insults,
threats and humiliation. Bullying
may also take on the form of sexual harassment and abuse.
D Teachers are not safe from bullying in schools either, according to the
O2 Foundation. More than half of students have heard of a case involving the
cyber-bullying of a teacher. Thirty-one percent of students have seen a video
ridiculing a teacher, and 22 percent think taking photos of teachers was a good
way of what they termed “getting back at them.”
E According to Helena Kolská, a police cadet who wrote a thesis titled
“Bullying in Elementary Schools,” schools and parents are key to tackling the crisis. “It is
necessary to have more discussion about the matter, for instance, in civics or relevant
classes,” she said. “Furthermore, more attention should be paid to the children
at home, so the parents know where and with whom their children spend their
free time.”
comprehensive – komplexní
humiliation – ponížení
to stem – pramenit,
pocházet
to tackle – zabránit
up-to-date figure –
aktuální údaj
1) Read the article and
match each of the headings to a paragraph.
1 Tomáš Bouška’s
opinion
2 Methods of
bullying
3 How to solve
bullying
4 Report by the
O2 Foundation
5 Bullied
teachers
2) Read the article again
and answer the questions.
1 What is the article
about?
2 What is the
definition of bullying by Tomáš Bouška?
3 What are
methods of bullying?
4 How are
teachers bullied?
5 How can we
prevent bullying?
3) Explain the following
words.
1 lack of
protection
2 cyber-bullying
3 computer
literacy
4 blackmailing
5 video
ridiculing a teacher
4) Answer the following questions.
What is bullying? Who takes
part in bullying? What are old and new forms of bullying? What can be caused by
bullying?
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