TIJUANA Bullying is not just a problem at schools in foreign countries.
That's what Baja California authorities are discovering as they begin efforts to educate students and their parents about the potentially devastating effects bullying has on its victims.
Twelve families took the unprecedented step of reporting to state authorities that their children were the victims of bullying in schools statewide from January to October of last year, the latest figures available.
Authorities say these cases are the tip of the iceberg of a grave problem that is just beginning to be detected in schools.
The Baja California Attorney General's Office has launched a program this year in 90 schools across the state to try to prevent this destructive behavior that until recently was even considered typical of adolescent games.
But the truth is that bullying, defined as the physical or psychological abuse of a student by one or more students, is eroding the quality of life of countless children and teen-agers.
A study by Mexico's Education Department showed that around 70 per cent of students in elementary through middle school across the country said they had been the victim of bullying at some point in their life.
According to study, more than 26,000 children in these grades said they were currently the victim of beatings, insults, threats, humiliations or exclusion.
A private elementary school in Tijuana's La Mesa district identified five cases of bullying during a workshop recently given by the staff from state's Attorney General's Office, through a special unit.
"A child that is not helped, not identified as a victim of this problem leads a frustrated life," said Sergio Salazar, principal of the school, called Instituto Juan Diego.
That's where the state staff gave a pilot workshop in November where the five victims of bullying were detected.
Experts say that various social, cultural and economic factors are coming together to unleash this problem.
Among them are the environment generated by the killings linked to drug cartels; the media's depiction of violence as commonplace; videogames where enemies are annihilated by the thousands; the disintegration of families and households where both parents work.
Paulina Tinoco is the coordinator of the special Unit for Alternative Methods for Penal Justice. She explained that last year parents began to file official complaints that their children were the victim of aggression from other students at school.
The unit has been operating for two years in Tijuana. It offers people the possibility of resolving conflicts through dialog or through an agreement worked out by the parties involved rather than resorting to legal action through a traditional court.
The mediators in this unit, generally psychologists or attorneys, detected the cases of bullying where victims had been physically injured or had been threatened with a beating.
Tinoco said that in a statewide meeting they decided to create a prevention program aimed at young children. The program would be based on the concepts of values, dialogue, respect, communication and awareness of bullying. The centerpiece of the program would be a workshop against abuse at school.
Jacqueline Díaz and Milagros Cázares, both mediators in the special unit, gave this workshop for two weeks to 66 fourth- to sixth-graders at the private elementary school in La Mesa.
They said that they detected five cases in which they got the victims to publicly identify their tormentors, who in turn expressed remorse. Further, students who had witnessed the abuse, who generally had been indifferent or even participated in it, learned ways to stop it.
"The best thing was for the victims to identify them (the aggressors) in front of the group," added the principal, Salazar. "A teacher did not have to do it. That's a deeper lesson."
On Jan. 6, in preparation for the workshop, a group of parents from the school was invited to campus to have a chat with the mediators.
The women explained how to identify bullying and showed them a video that's gone viral.
It shows an Australian teen-ager, Casey Heynes, who is the victim of derision and abuse by his classmates because he's overweight.
The YouTube video shows one boy who confronts Heynes, punches him hard in the face then continues to try to hit him. Heynes tries to block the punches and then in an instant picks up the boy and slams him into the concrete. The boy staggers to his feet and hobbles away.
The parents are told that Heynes had been the victim of bullying since he was five years old. And that he said that the seriously considered suicide because of the violence he suffered at school.
They were also told about 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who committed suicide in Williamsville, N.Y., in September after suffering years of bullying by his classmates, according to his parents.
"Both the schools and the family of a bully are responsible" for the aggression, Cázares, told the parents. "To be able to identify a bully, you have to clearly understand that his or her personality is developed at home."
Cázares said that males typically bully others through physical aggression or threats, while females will exclude someone from their social circle.
The mediators estimate that at least 5 per cent of students in elementary to middle school are the victims of bullying.
Published in The Union-Tribune Enlace
