PARKINSON MEMORIAL SCHOOL is taking steps to stamp out bullying in schools.
Principal Jeff Broomes told the DAILY NATION that a team was adding the finishing touches to a 32-page anti-bullying handbook, which he expects to be in the hands of students by the end of next week.
The principal was speaking on Tuesday as The Pine, St Michael school put on a display to mark its 53rd anniversary.
The handbook contains a personal letter from Broomes to the students about why bullying was not acceptable, how victims and the perpetrators suffered and why it should be addressed to prevent pain to both parties.
“The pain for one may be more immediate, but they both suffer in the long-term,” he said.
Broomes, author of the handbook, noted that there was a segment for teachers as well.
“It speaks to how bullying can be identified, the places it’s manifested – the bus, the playing field, the canteen, the classroom.
“The types of people who are bullied, the type of people who do the bullying . . . . Then it identifies a process to addressing bullying wherever and whenever it is seen,” he explained.
Noting that the handbook was not a response to a violent act which put the school in the news last month, Broomes said he had been working on the handbook for some time and it was now appropriate.
He said he benefited from the above information at several overseas conferences and even made a presentation on bullying at a parent-teacher meeting at another secondary school.
He said he was trying to compile the work while he was principal of Alexandra School, and that he had also written a different type of letter to the students there.
In addition to the soon-to-be-released handbook, Broomes said the school’s “excellent” guidance counsellor Julia Edey and other teachers spoke about bullying all the time, with the help of a volunteer who does one-on-one counselling.
