Caucutud says No to Bullying

ELEN M. DECENA

The Department of Education has announced recently that each public school in the country is directed to support Republic Act 10627 which is entitled ‘An Act Requiring All Elementary and Secondary Schools to Adopt Policies to Prevent and Address the Acts of Bullying in institutions.’

With the designation of Mrs. Verna M., the school head of Cacutud Elementary School, we learned from her that Bullying in school should be avoided and the best way to do this is to educate our students.

Bullying in schools is a worldwide problem that can have negative consequences for the general school climate and for the right of students to learn in a safe environment without fear. Bullying can also have negative lifelong consequences— both for students who bully and for their victims.

Bullying is comprised of direct behaviors such as teasing, taunting, threatening, hitting, and stealing that are initiated by one or more students against a victim. In addition to direct attacks, bullying may also be more indirect by causing a student to be socially isolated through intentional exclusion.

While boys typically engage in direct bullying methods, girls who bully are more apt to utilize these more subtle indirect strategies, such as spreading rumors and enforcing social isolation. Whether the bullying is direct or indirect, the key component of bullying is that the physical or psychological intimidation occurs repeatedly over time to create an ongoing pattern of harassment and abuse. It is good to know that DepEd is doing things right at the right time to stop bullying from spreading. We praise our department for directing all schools to adopt policies to prevent the acts of bullying and we are with them in their quest for a worryfree and bully-free school system.