MUKAH: The president of the SK Kampung Teh Parents and Teachers Association, Jawawi Ragas fully supports the efforts of the police and teachers at the school for disclosing methods to prevent bullying to students from the primary level.
In fact, Jawawi said efforts to campaign and share on bullying with school children are very much supported, thus helping to avoid, prevent and find out that bullying in schools are very harmful nowadays.
Head of Mukah Police Station, Sergeant Major Abdul Rahman Maerrad said that bullying could be interpreted as abusing or mistreating a student who is usually weak to bully or scare the person concerned.
He shared this information when delivering a talk entitled “Bullying, preventing it before it gets worse” to more than 150 students, teachers and parents at the SK Kampung Teh here.
Also present during the presentation were SK Kampung Teh headmaster Ismail Hud, Jawawi, three policeman of Mukah police district headquarters, teachers and senior school assistants.
“The types of bullying that often happen in schools are such as physical bullying, verbal bullying (conversation), social bullying and cyber bullying. Examples of physical bullying that can display an unhealthy culture at school are such as hitting, kicking, stealing, hiding other people’s property, and forcing others to do unreasonable things.
“The cause of physical bullying is due to dissatisfaction, wanting attention, peer influence, family problems, self-importance, breaking rules and jealousy.
“Bullying can have an impact on physical and emotional health in life whether for a short or long period of time. Research studies also show that anyone who is involved in bullying whether they bully others or are bullied has a high risk of suffering from depression”, he explained further.
Iktisas Circular Letter Number 8 of 2010 regarding the guidelines for preventing and dealing with bullying among pupils in schools which allows principals and headmasters to take action against pupils who commit bullying at school or in the dormitory by imposing any one punishment such as:
Giving a stern warning or prohibiting the offender from using the facilities at school or in the dormitory or participating in school programmes or activities for a certain period.
Offenders can also be punished with caning not more than three times or suspended from school for a period not exceeding 14 days or be punished with expulsion from school (for serious cases involving injury or loss of life).
According to Abdul Rahman, the police had a section or act on punishment for bullies and for which these cases would be investigated in accordance to the respective sections, for example one of them is the Penal Code which provides for prison sentences or both upon conviction.
