Ms Mary Briody:

I agree with all the other contributors. I would also like to bring attention to the fact that this starts at a young age. I wish to go back to what Dr. Noctor said with regard to one-off bullying. There is a big solution to this if we have better communication between parents and the schools. Parents need to see it as okay to talk to the school principal. The school principal has to hear what the parents are saying and agree to keep an eye on the situation and agree that the school policy will take note of all of that.

I would start at junior infants. How do we educate junior infants, senior infants and younger children? There is a great role here for play psychotherapy. Play is a great method to communicate with the younger cohort. I believe it would make a great difference at primary school level in a fun but effective way to get the message across around bullying. That could then be followed into secondary school with the presence of really good psychotherapy measures or counselling. It is not fair to ask teachers to take on more than they are already doing. We need specialised people in place. One of the major things I hear from secondary school students is that they often do not trust going out to counselling in school settings because they are afraid people will see them or get to know why they are going out. That all has to be looked at. If a change can be made there, it could be far more effective.