The State Duma is preparing a bill to systematize the concept of bullying and oblige schools to report cases of bullying of children to the juvenile affairs committee and the police. Rossiyskaya Gazeta already knows about this.
As MP Artem Metelev told the publication, bullying will be understood as systematic actions (performed three or more times) that lead to physical or psychological harm, belittling through aggression or other actions.
Revealing details of the project, he drew attention to the fact that today it is almost impossible to do anything about child aggressors, especially if they are under 14 years old. The new bill assumes that individual prevention work will be carried out with aggressors in Russian schools, and lessons, special classes or thematic film viewing will also be organized for whole classes cases of bullying have been identified.
Schools also want to make it mandatory to notify police and the juvenile commission about cases of bullying. Currently, according to the parliamentarian, it is not beneficial for educational institutions to do so.
“Why is this so noisy? The media will come, my God, the parents will line up. Therefore, all this is so hushed up that then the lid blows off and on Telegram channels we see a video that attracts millions of views, in which one or another boy is humiliated in the school bathroom,” Metelev said.
The bill will be sent to the government for approval next month.
Previously in Russia, it was proposed to deploy anonymous surveys in schools to combat bullying. It is thought that this will help identify the most disadvantaged schools in the at-risk “red zone,” where psychologists should be sent to carry out preventive work.
