Bullies in Schools - The Bullied

The previous blog entry is on the traits of bullies in school.

As such, to prevent your child to fall prey to such school bullies, it is best that as a parent, you should look out for some signs, or rather changes in behaviour, that shows that your child is being a target of the bullies. Normally, if a child is being bullied in school, he/she would not want people, especially his/her parents and teachers, as he/she is normally threatened by the bully not to let anyone know about the incident.

Nevertheless, the signs may be as below:

1) Your child may become afraid of walking to and from school, especially if by himself/herself.
2) Your child may want to change the usual route to and back from school.
3) Your child may not want you to go on the school bus, as he/her may not want you to
know about the bullying, which may be taking place in the school bus.
4) Your child may beg or want you to drive them to school
5) Your child may be unwilling to go to school, such as pretending to feel ill in the mornings. What is even worse is that he/she may begin to play truant, to avoid school altogether and at the same time prevent arousing your suspicion.
6) Your child may also begin to perform poorly in tests and assignments.
7) Your child may return home rather often with damaged clothes or books, or that you begin to find that his/her possessions start to go missing.
8) Your child may come home, rather often, starving, as the bully has taken the money for lunch, or that his/her pocket money is often "lost".
9) Your child may become withdrawn, start stammering, lack confidence
10) Your child may become distressed and anxious, stop eating
11) Your child may attempt or threaten suicide
12) Your child may cry themselves to sleep or even have nightmares frequently
13) A rather obvious sign, is that your child has unexplained bruises, cuts, scratches
14) Your child becomes aggressive and unreasonable and even start to bully his/her siblings

If your child really does exhibit some of the signs as listed above, there is a high chance that your child is already a victim and it is really time that you have a good chat with him/her, find out the source of the behavioural change and put a stop to the tormentation of your child before it gets worse.

Generally speaking, if there is an abnormal change in behaviour exhibited by your child recently and you are unable to pinpoint the source of change, it might be due to bullying. Thus, as a concerned parent, it is high time that you spend some time and have a good chat with your child.

Annie