Parents talk about how they helped their child deal with bullying "I made sure I collected all the facts before approaching the school," says Sue Jones, 48, from Sussex, whose son Matthew, now 16, was bullied from the age of 13 to 15. "For ages, the school denied there was a bullying problem so, when ‘incidents’ occurred in the classroom, I verified what had happened with friend’s children who were in the same class to let the school know there were witnesses."
"It might sound dramatic but I bought my daughter an attack alarm," says Maria Casey, 42, from Liverpool, mum to Sarah, 16 and Kieran, 11. "She had no problems at school but was being picked on by a few girls in the area. I made sure when she was out it was always with friends and varied her routes and times to and from school and other activities, which helped. And she only needed to use the alarm once - the ear-splitting noise was enough to attract the attention of passers-by and made the girls run off. They lost interest after that."
"The toilets at my son’s school had become a no-go area for younger pupils, yet the school didn’t realise," says Karen Maples, 39, from Staines, mum to Joshua, 13. "Once we explained what was happening, they increased the supervision at break-time and the problem was resolved quite easily. It was difficult to stay calm when the head teacher at first argued that they didn’t have the resources to increase toilet monitoring but, by presenting a reasoned argument rather than losing my temper, we reached a happy compromise."
"When I discovered my daughter, Georgia, 14, was being cyberbullied, I set up my own Bebo (social networking site) page and became her ‘friend’", explains Sarah-Jane Woods, 34, from Gravesend. "I could monitor what was going on without being too intrusive and, knowing that I would see what was being written, proved an effective deterrent."
"I encouraged my son to join Tae Kwondo classes with his brother," says Lisa Kearney, 35, mum to Aaron, 11 and Matthew, eight, from Cheltenham. "This not only provided a much-needed respite from the whole ‘bullying’ saga but built up his confidence and self-esteem, made him more aware of his body language and posture and he has made new friends.