New Zealand Far From Bullying Free

It’s Bullying Free New Zealand week! This week is an annual, nationwide event, led by the Bullying Prevention Advisory Group (BPAG). It’s an opportunity for schools and their communities to raise awareness about bullying and promote inclusion.

Data shows fifteen percent of 15-year-olds in Aotearoa report frequent bullying – the highest in the OECD and double the OECD average. A further 32% of students report being bullied at least a few times a month.

We know that young people have the solutions. Enacting their ideas is the crucial factor needed to create change. That’s the belief of multi-award-winning bullying prevention charity, Sticks ‘n Stones. They are challenging schools to spend this week supporting their rangatahi to develop policies and processes to lead their prevention approaches. ‘The experience and expertise of young people around the issues most affecting us - and how support can be relevant and helpful - is available in every school. But is often overlooked. Adults are making decisions about us, without us’, says High School Advocate Ella Salmen Parker. 

CEO of Sticks ‘n Stones, Karla Sanders calls for targeted investment from the Ministry of Education. ‘Treasury’s recent Wellbeing Report clearly highlighted the failure to address bullying in Aotearoa to date. Pockets of “good” aren’t good enough. We need to see the promises of the wellbeing approach make a real difference to the lives of tamariki and rangatahi on the ground in schools to prevent bullying from robbing our young people of their self esteem and their potential’.

‘There is a strong correlation between young people experiencing bullying and those experiencing negative mental health impacts as a result that they are carrying with them into adulthood’, Mrs Sanders continues, ‘In order to tackle Aotearoa’s appalling bullying and mental health statistics we need more than one off workshops, visiting speakers or documents on a website, we need consistent, long term support for both teachers and students’.

Raising awareness is only the first step, in order for all young people to be accepted and included in spaces where they can be themselves. There are steps long overdue that rely on a commitment of resources rather than just lip service.

As an organisation, Sticks ‘n Stones calls on the government to think differently. We need to do more and our young people need to be a part of that change. We challenge government to fund high quality, evidence-based and New Zealand developed solutions that empower youth in both Primary and High Schools. Better teacher training, continued professional development as well as support for local research on effective prevention and support, as a minimum.

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