Bulling

Education is a very important part of a child's life, and yet an

increasing number of children are showing reluctance to
attend school. It is not that they find the work too difficult or
are afraid of the teachers. No, it is because they are being
bullied.
School bullies can make other children's lives a misery and
their bullying takes different forms. Often they will use their
physical size to intimidate those who are smaller and
weaker than themselves. They will threaten their victims
with a beating if they don't do as they say, often using
physical force to extort money, and will steal possessions
from them by force.
Bullies use verbal abuse as well as physical abuse on
their victims. The butt of this abuse may often simply be
slightly different in some way from the rest of the class.
A child may have red hair, wear spectacles, not have the
latest fashion in shoes, have I only one parent, or be of a
different race, for example. This can make them a target
for the school bully, who will indulge in the most insulting
name-calling.
Some psychologists say that the desire of the class bully to
dominate the others is
a result of an inferiority complex or some personal
unhappiness, but this does not help those who are on the
receiving end of the abuse. So great is the bullying
problem that many schools have been forced to draw up
an official strategy for dealing with it.
Teachers encourage the victims of bullying to report the
matter to one of them, but many of them are afraid to do so,
for fear of more physical assault or more taunts. The
bullies will accuse them of telling tales and make them
suffer more. Furthermore, those who browbeat others,
although domineering, can often appear to be charming to
those who are in authority.
Because it is so difficult to get victims to report bullies, and
often difficult to prove coercion, many bullies escape
unpunished. We must protect our children from this
persecution. They have a right to enjoy their schooldays.

KNOW THE MEANING

Abuse (noun) 1. the act of treating someone badly or

violently; ill-treatment:

 Bill never hit Diana, but she put up with years of

mental abuse from him.
 The child's stepfather has been charged with sexual
abuse.
2. The wrong or harmful use of something:
 Jim says that he just has a small drink now and then,
but actually he is suffering from alcohol abuse.
 Kate's drug abuse finally killed her
Abuse (verb) 1. to treat someone badly or violently; to ill-
treat someone:
 It was obvious that Dora was being physically abused
by her husband; she was always covered in bruises.
2. To use something in a wrong or harmful way:
 It was abusing drugs which led to Tom's health
problems.
 Diane abused her position of authority by sacking
people just because she personally disliked them.
Assault (noun) a violent attack:
 The man who attacked my grandfather in the street
was found guilty of assault.
 The newspaper's assault on the government's
economic policy was quite unexpected.
 The assault on the enemy camp took place at night.
Assault (verb) to make a violent attack on someone or
something:
 The woman assaulted Ruth by hitting her in the face
when she refused to give her money.
Browbeat (verb) to try to force someone to do something
by threatening them or frightening them:
 Tom used to browbeat other pupils into doing his
homework for him.

Bully (noun) a person who deliberately frightens and ill-

treats someone, usually a weaker person, and often makes
them do what the bully wants by force or the threat of
force:
 Pete is a bully and gets the younger children to give
him money by threatening to hit them.
 There is a bully in Kate's class who threw her coat in
the river because she refused to give him sweets.
Bully (verb) to act like a bully; to frighten and ill-treat
someone, usually a weaker person, and use force or the
threat of force to get them to do what you want:
 Helen bullies the other pupils into writing her essays
for her.
 Beth was afraid to tell' her father that she was being
bullied in case she was attacked even more.
Bullying (noun) the act of bullying: Bullying is punished
severely in that school, but the teachers don't always find
out about it.
Butt (noun) a person at whom someone directs jokes,
scornful remarks, etc:
 Irish people are quite often the butt of English jokes.
 The teacher does not like Tom and often makes him the
butt of her criticism.
Coercion (noun) the action of making someone do
something which they do not want to do by means of force
or the threat of force:
 The accused man said that police had used coercion to
get him to confess to the murder.
 The youth claimed that he had broken into the house
under coercion from his friends.
Coerce (verb) to make someone do something which they
do not want to do by means of force or the threat of force:
 Eric said that he had been coerced into stealing the
car.
Dominate (verb) to have control over someone or
something:
 She is a very small woman, but she completely
dominates her husband and children.
 He dominated the debate and prevented many
people from giving their point of view.
Domineering (adjective) showing a strong desire to have
control over other people without taking into consideration
their opinions, wishes, etc:
 Mary is so domineering that no one else on the
committee gets a chance to say what they think.
 One of the reasons why Jane is so shy is that her
mother is very domineering.

Extort (verb) to obtain something from someone by means

of force, threats, etc:

 The youths extorted money from the woman by

threatening to kill her cat if she refused to give it to
them.
 The boy extorted money from some of the younger
pupils by beating them if they didn't give him any.
Inferiority complex (noun) a feeling that you are
inferior to others, that you are not nearly as good, as clever,
as important, etc, as they are:
 Tim has such an inferiority complex that he won't enter
the tennis competition, although he is, in fact, a very
good player.
 Sheila's father is always praising his other two
daughters and completely ignores Sheila; it's not
surprising that she has an inferiority complex.
Intimidate (verb) to make someone feel afraid of you,
often deliberately, to persuade them to do something:
 Some of the pupils are intimidated by Miss Jones at
first, because she looks so stern, but she's actually very
gentle.
 Dan tried to intimidate two younger boys into stealing
the keys to the school for him.
Intimidating (adjective) frightening; threatening:
 The dog was barking and looked rather intimidating.
Name-calling (noun) the act of saying nasty, insulting
words about someone, often to them directly:
 The little girl was very upset by the name-calling of the
other pupils.
 Dick was told by his father to ignore the other children's
name-calling and they would soon stop.
Call someone names: to use nasty insulting words
about someone, often to them directly:
 Val and Anna used to be good friends, but they
quarrelled and now call each other names whenever
they meet.
Persecute (verb) to annoy and bother someone
constantly, never leaving them alone and making their lives
miserable:
 Those school bullies are bound to try to persecute the
new boy.
 The MP who was involved in a financial scandal claimed
that the press persecuted him.
Persecution (noun) harassment or bad and unfair
treatment of people because of their race, their religious or
political beliefs, etc:
 The parents of the new boy have complained to the
school authorities about the persecution of their son by
bullies.
 The local people subjected the immigrants to
persecution until laws were passed against it.

Language Help

The original meaning of persecute is to treat people unfairly

or cruelly because of their race, their religious or political
beliefs, etc:
 Jewish people were persecuted in Nazi Germany.

Physical (adjective) connected with the body:

 Her illness is mental, not physical.
 Bert has I told by his doctor to take more physical
exercise.
Receiving end, be on/at the receiving end: to
be the person at whom some form action, usually a bad
or unpleasant one, is aimed:
 Shop assistants have got nothing to do with the
quality of the goods, but they are often on the receiving
end of customers' complaints.
 Pam has a very bad temper and I've been at
receiving end of it more than once.
Strategy (noun) a detailed plan which is together to
achieve a particular purpose:
 Heads of state met to discuss defence strategy.
 The company's recent marketing strategy was
brilliant and their sales have increased greatly as a result
of it.
Strategic (adjective) connected wit strategy; forming
part of a detailed plan which is put together to achieve a
particular purpose:
 The strategic bombing of small areas at a time proved
successful.
Tale, tell tales: to tell someone, especially someone in
authority, about something that someone has done
wrong:
 Bert said that sister was always telling tales about him
to their parents.
 Jean is not well liked at school because she tells tales
to the teacher whenever the children do something wrong.
Target (noun) 1. a result or goal which you are trying to
achieve:
 The computer salespeople have been told that they
must sell a certain number of machines per week, but the
targets are too high.
 We set the target for our fund-raising at $10,000 and
we reached it easily.
 The bomb failed to hit its target.
2 an object which is aimed at in shooting practice, darts,
etc, often a round board with circles on it:
 Mike is hopeless at darts shooting; he didn't hit the
target once.
Target (verb) to aim or direct something at someone:
 The new anti-smoking campaign is targeted at
teenagers.
 That television program is targeted at older viewers.
Taunt (noun) a nasty, unkind remark that is intended to
upset someone:
 Bill was smaller than the other children in his class
and had to listen to their taunts about his lack of size.
 Alice tried to ignore the other children's taunts about
her father being a drunk.
Taunt (verb) to tease someone in a hurtful, mocking way
in order to upset them:
 The other children taunted Jenny 'because her clothes
belonged to her elder sister and were too big for her.
Verbal (adjective) expressed in words; relating to words:
 The child was found to have excellent verbal skills,
despite her young age.
 The girl received many verbal attacks from her
stepfather, but he never hit her.
 Language Help
Verbal also means spoken rather than written:
 The boss gave bill a verbal warning about the poor standard of his work.
 I left a verbal message for Joan with her secretary.

Victim (noun) a person who has been hurt or killed by

someone or something:
 She was the victim of a very violent attacker.
 All the victims of the train crash were taken to
hospital.