The awful extent of bullying both at school and online

MORE than 2000 children are being bullied each year, a Sunday Post probe has found.

Over the last five years alone, more than 10,000 primary and secondary pupils have been victims of verbal and physical abuse by their peers, our study discovered.

And the true scale of the problem is likely to be far worse as one-third of councils don’t collate central statistics on bullying.

Meanwhile, experts say that even the cases that are logged are likely to be the tip of the iceberg – as many victims feel too terrified to report their tormentors and end up suffering in silence.

Like many young people, Britney Mazzoncini loved social media – but it was social media which gave her bullies a way of taunting her even when she wasn’t at school.

Our probe shows that growing numbers of pupils and parents have contacted schools to report children being “cyber-bullied” through social media, mobile phones and even online games.

Hundreds of pupils have gone as far as moving school to escape harassment.

Bryan Evans, spokesman for charity Children 1st, said: “Some children are able to ignore bullying and, if they feel confident and have selfesteem, can get through it.

“For others it’s devastating and has a lasting effect on their mental health.”

Information we’ve obtained from Scottish councils show schools received more than 2000 reports of pupils being bullied each year between 2011 and 2015.

The figure was lower in the academic year 2015/16 with some 1560 reports received.

However, this could be because Edinburgh City Council, which had the highest figures in previous years, doesn’t yet have data for that time period.

Mr Evans said around 9% of the 4000 calls made to the Children 1st’s Parentline helpline every year are about bullying. However, he added some incidents reported as “bullying” were in fact far worse.

He said: “Sometimes things are labelled as bullying when it’s actually more serious.

“The procurator fiscal has been involved when actually it’s been sexual harassment or assault. If it’s more serious we would say they need to get the police involved.”

Cyber-bullying has risen remorselessly in the last five years. In the last academic year, figures provided by just 15 councils showed some 251 pupils had reported being bullied online or via mobile phones. This was higher than previous years.

In total, at least 1002 pupils were subjected to cyber-bullying between 2011 and 2016.

The fact that bullying has been carried out this way shows that for some children bullying will continue at home as well as at school, making it much harder for victims to escape its reach.

However, Alex Holmes, head of anti-bullying campaign The Diana Award, said face-to-face bullying was still more of a problem than what happens online.

He said: “While cyberbullying can be an increasing worry, the young people we work with tell us that verbal bullying in school is still the biggest issue. Technology can amplify bullying and cause harm and distress.”

In some cases bullying has become so bad that parents have requested their child be removed from the school.

Less than a third of councils recording this particular data centrally, but despite that The Sunday Post can reveal that at least 133 pupils changed schools last year after submitting a removal request because of bullying.

In the last five years almost 500 pupils have moved schools to escape bullies – 500 young people and families whose lives have been disrupted by the “sickness” Annette has so bravely spoken about.