Stronger police ties with students needed to tackle bullying

 

Scenes from a widely-shared video in May showing a schoolboy who was allegedly beaten up by his seniors.

PETALING JAYA: Forging stronger ties between police and students is essential in curbing bullying in schools, says a criminologist.

Commenting on a viral video of seven teenagers assaulting another teen in Johor Bahru, Universiti Sains Malaysia associate professor P Sundramoorthy said school liaison officers of the police force should familiarise themselves with the students.

When students form a close bond with the officers, they would be more open to admit they were being bullied. “With such information, these officers can work together with the school to better control the situation,” he told FMT.

Sundramoorthy said that in some cases, students were reluctant to report that they had been bullied and that cases generally go unreported when the victims are not seriously hurt.

Some may also keep silent if they are emotionally or verbally abused.

Sundramoorthy said that police officers who were assigned to a school would normally visit it “once or twice a year” and questioned if the number of visits were sufficient.

“Are they familiar with the characteristics of the students in the school?” he said.

He said while the government had put in place many initiatives, such programmes ended up becoming “showpieces” as they were not implemented properly.

In 2022, the education ministry appointed some 10,224 police liaison officers, about 7,700 deployed to primary schools and the rest to secondary schools.

Last year, it was reported that the number of bullying cases in schools had increased to 122 from 50 in 2021.

Sundramoorthy said one of the major problems with school bullying is that certain schools occasionally downplay the severity of such cases in order to safeguard their reputation.

“The school administrators want a very clean image for the school. But I think we should accept that such incidents take place. And depending on how extreme the case is, it should be reported to the relevant authorities.”

Similarly, criminologist Shankar Durairaja of Kolej UniKop said the approach would vary from school to school.

“It actually depends on the school. The type of school, the leadership, the teachers of that particular school and whether they’re actually keen on fighting against bullying or they are focusing on (protecting) the school’s reputation,” he said.

A school more concerned about its reputation “wouldn’t want their school’s name to be tarnished”. Such a stance would see the school attempt to cover up such cases instead of reporting them, he said. - FMT