A Student's Response to the Action Plan on Bullying

My name is Caoimhe Troy and I am a Transition Year student. I am currently doing a week of Work Experience here in John's office in Leinster House. I am delighted to get the opportunity to voice my opinion on bullying and the new Action Plan on Bullying.

Any type of bullying can have major impacts on people my age, both physically and mentally, as well as emotionally. In my school, we describe bullying as being Hurtful, Aggressive, Repeated and Deliberate (HARD). In 2010,  24.3% of students aged 10-17 reported that they were bullied at least once at school in the past few months. That's almost one out of every four girls in my year, which is absolutely horrific, in my opinion.

Thankfully, with the help of Minister Quinn and Minister Fitzgerald, steps have recently been taken to launch an Action Plan on Bullying. This is in response to the hurtful behaviour occurring both inside and outside schools nationwide. The Action Plan recommends twelve actions, including:

• A media campaign targeted at young people focused on cyber bullying.
• New national anti-bullying procedures for all schools to be in place next year.
• Department of Education and Skills support for the Stand Up! Awareness Week Against Homophobic Bullying.

As a student myself, I welcome the approach promoted by the Action Plan, and I genuinely think it will be extremely effective.

In my opinion, Homophobic, Racist, and especially Cyber Bullying are becoming increasingly active forms of bullying. The Internet offers us a great connection to friends and family. However, over the past few years, the Internet can also be a very unsafe place for people my age not just in Ireland, but worldwide.

• In 2011, 17% of children reported being a victim of Cyber Bullying. 
• A recent survey showed that 30% of teachers had witnessed a racist incident in that past month.
• It also showed that four out of five teachers were aware of homophobic bullying in their school.

As a teenager myself, I have seen first hand the devastating effects of bullying. It can make teenagers doubt themselves, lose all confidence and feel worthless. In 2010,  1198 people under nineteen were treated in hospitals all over Ireland for self-harm. I find this appalling  I believe that nobody should be made feel so terrible about themselves that they would inflict pain on themselves.

As you can see, serious changes need to be made. Despite all of these negative figures, I believe from the bottom of my heart that the new Action Plan for Bullying will make our schools and communities a safer and happier place for people my age.

The Action Plan on Bullying can be viewed on the Department of Education's website here.