Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 8 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all our guests and thank them for their very interesting input. My first question is for Professor Hymel. I was very struck by what she said about moral disengagement and the challenge in that regard. She made the point that it may be difficult to talk about this with children, given that they are not, as it were, fully formed morally at the point at which they appear to be showing this lack of empathy. She drew a parallel with the behaviour of soldiers or terrorists in certain contexts. How do we build empathy and establish the kinds of behavioural norms that everybody can share across identities and philosophies? I believe it is very important to talk about creating a moral position that bullying is something that is wrong. However, in the context of restorative justice, for example, if a person who is bullying gets some kind of satisfaction in the short term and can see that his or her behaviour causes suffering, how do we show such people that this is not the way to live a good life and is not ultimately good for them? How do we create that sense of understanding? Is there a need to emphasise in this that there are issues of right and wrong?

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