What to do if you are being bullied
Being bullied can leave you feeling miserable and worthless. If you are being bullied, the most important thing you can do is to tell someone you trust.
Bullying can have many different forms:
- being called names or teased
- being pinched, punched, pushed, or pulled
- being threatened or intimidated
- having your bag and other things thrown around
- having rumours spread about you
- being ignored and left out
- being forced to hand over money or possessions
- getting silent or abusive phone calls or offensive texts
- insulting messages about you on the internet or by IM
Bullies can also frighten you so much that you don't want to go to school and pretend to be ill to avoid them.
What you can do if you are being bullied
Your school or college must have a policy which sets out how they will deal with bullying and this should tell you what to do. You should always speak to someone in your school first and usually your teacher is best placed to support you.
If they cannot sort out the problem or you are not happy with what they have said you can take it further by talking to the headteacher. If they are unable to sort it out you should write to the chair of governors (you can get their address from the school). The local authority may get involved if there is still a problem after you have followed this route.
There are several good websites that are good sources of advice: