Terrorism in the playground
(and corridors, toilets, bike sheds, changing rooms, far corners
of the playground, on the way to and from school, etc - anywhere adults aren't)

For many children, terrorism is a fact of daily life. Remember what it was like to have to go to school and to have to endure the thuggery of bullying, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year ...

To wake up each day knowing that you have to go to school, knowing there’s no way of avoiding it, knowing that the moment you set out for school the bullies are there, waiting for you to arrive, waiting to call you names, to tease you, torment you, humiliate and mock you, embarrass you in front of friends, push you, punch you, slap you, pinch you, spit on you, kick you, and ... you daren’t think about the rest, or the possible consequences.

Don’t the bullies behave like perfect darlings whenever a teacher approaches? Aren’t they polite and deferential, until the teacher is out of sight, then the kicking, punching, spitting, tormenting starts over, school books are damaged (how am I going to explain that again?), homework defaced (ditto), projects sabotaged, food spoilt, possessions pilfered, personal items desecrated, clothes ripped, school uniform torn, dinner money stolen, pocket money extorted. Just another normal day. Like yesterday. And the day before. Like tomorrow. And the day after that.

Why have my friends deserted me? They used to support me, now they join in with the bullying. Can’t they see the hurt they cause? Are they too frightened? Don’t they realise that if we stood together we could defeat the bullies?

Not one teacher takes the slightest interest, preferring to believe the glib excuses and assurances of the bullies. Why are they taken in so easily? No point in telling teachers, they don’t care, they’re under enough stress as it is, anyway. It’ll just make the bullying worse and the bullies more covert then it’ll be even harder to be taken seriously. How can the head teacher tell parents that "we have an effective anti-bullying policy" when the head is the biggest bully in the school? How do these people get to be in positions of power? I can’t escape school for at least four years. I have to attend, otherwise I’ll be treated as a truant, the authorities will give me hell, my parents will give me hell, the head will give me hell, the teachers will give me hell. Who will believe me anyway when I say I’m being bullied? There’s no escape. What I need is a permanent solution so that I don’t have to endure this never-ending pain. Ever.

Excerpted from Bullycide: death at playtime, an expose of child suicide caused by bullying by Neil Marr and Tim Field

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Neil Marr and Tim Field's book Bullycide: death at playtime reveals
the hidden epidemic of child suicide caused by bullying and harassment
The authors Neil Marr and Tim Field