Beefing up campaign against bullying

Caroline (left) and Georgina Evers-Swindell flank police education officer Jolanda Roe as they prepare a campaign poster to help stop bullying in schools. Picture / Amos Chapple

Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell are helping to launch a stop-bullying-in-schools campaign, which Telecom and the police will implement nationwide after Easter.

The Olympic rowing stars were in Hamilton yesterday for a photo shoot where an emphasis was placed on the mobile phone as one of the bully's modern-day tools.

"We've seen the tragic story [of Alex Teka] over the past few weeks," said Georgina Evers-Swindell.

Bullying was not normal and it should not be tolerated as part of growing up, said the Olympian.

"Students should make sure not to keep quiet; they shouldn't keep it to themselves."

Telecom will sponsor about 200,000 pamphlets outlining the updated stop-bullying programme, which has been available to schools since the early 1990s.

Police deliver the programme to all schools as part of the health and safety curriculum.

Within the next few weeks it is being refreshed to take into account the widespread use of texting among teenagers.

"We never had texting when we were at school," said Georgina Evers-Swindell.

"It seems kind of silly to bully others with a phone when you can be so easily identified."

"It's a cowardly way to do it," added Caroline Evers-Swindell.

The twins said that although they were not bullied while at school, they believed the changing school environment could make it easier for victims to speak out in the future.

There was greater awareness and acknowledgement of the issue nowadays, said police education officer Jolanda Roe.

Ms Roe was responsible for delivering the new programme to schools in the Hamilton area.

She said it was hoped the resource would arm teachers, students and parents with methods to counter the changing tactics employed by school bullies.

The course was tailored to match all age groups. One of the key aspects of it was the identification of perpetrators and victims.

"It runs through things such as feelings of self-worth, respecting others and their differences - be they cultural or having certain disabilities. It promotes a 'telling' environment in schools."

Ms Roe said that in her experience boys' tactics generally focused on verbal and physical forms of bullying, while girls' mainly used psychological and emotional means, such as the "catty" isolation of someone loosely connected to their group.

Telecom sponsorship adviser Brett Jackson said the company worked in with police through its contact investigation centre when dealing with phone abuse.

A groundswell of discussion on bullying was sparked when the Weekend Herald revealed the story of 12-year-old Alex Teka a fortnight ago. Alex had been bullied and died a day before the new school year was to begin.

Yesterday, executives from Telecom, Vodafone, the internet safety watchdog NetSafe and the police met to discuss ways of halting sinister electronic messaging.

NetSafe spokeswoman Lee Chisholm said the meeting "established a framework for the development of consistent, robust processes across the telcos in responding to text bullying and harassment".

The processes would build on existing services offered by Telecom and Vodafone, and would aim to help police take action against offenders, including prosecutions.

Next week expatriate Kiwi Professor Brian Flay from the United States will deliver a presentation at Waikato University on "the theory of interventions", which aims to encourage young people to face life more positively.

The theory is based on Professor Flay's research, the goal of which is to reduce youth suicide and crime rates.