Reaction To Bullies

What do you do if you see a bully?

Our survey this week shows that nearly two thirds of children do exactly the right thing when they see someone being bullied – they go and tell a teacher. That way the teacher can stop the bullying STRAIGHT AWAY without anybody being hurt.

12% of you would elect to tell an older friend to come and stop it BUT the problem with that route is that your friend will not have the experience that a teacher has to deal with the situation. As well as being able to stop the bullying straight away, the teacher will know what to do to prevent a recurrence. This may be punishing the bully or at least giving him or her a good talking to. In addition, the teacher will be able to constantly watch the individual to ensure that they behave in the future.

It is a good idea to tell your parents what happened and 7% of you would take this course of action. Remember though that your parents are not at school all the time and that is why it is better to tell your teacher first. Teachers are at the school all the time and, with a little help from you, they can watch out for any bad behaviour and work on preventing it happening again.

So now we come to the 6% of you that would just walk away! Ask yourself this… How would you feel if someone was seriously hurt and you had done nothing to stop it? And something else to remember – it might be YOU that is being bullied next time and then you will be relying on your friends to tell the teacher so that it can be stopped quickly.

Finally we come to the 11% who said they would join in with the bullying. It's difficult for us to believe that you actually said that because we always thought that the Education Quizzes students were a good, kindly group of children – see the survey at Honesty and Kindness.

As you are growing into young adults you'll have many choices to make and one of the most important ones is whether to be nasty or nice to other people. If you choose to be nice you will be liked and respected but if you choose to be nasty you will find it extremely difficult to make friends or to do well in life. The choice is yours but we hope you make the sensible one.

Further Advice

If you find that you are being bullied then always remember that IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. It is always the bully that is in the wrong and something needs to be done to stop it happening. Talk to your parents and your teachers about it and between them they will normally be able to find a solution.

There is even a National Bullying Helpline that the adults around you can refer to in order to sort out difficult situations. Alternatively, you can always call them yourself on 0845 22 55 787 because they will always be pleased to help you.

See our full list of children's surveys