Eradicating bullying is everyone's business

Imatra schools have zero tolerance for bullying.

School centers have been declared bullying-free zones: no bullying of any kind is allowed.

Still, bullying happens.

- It would be completely useless to say that there is no bullying at Imatra. Yes, we are bullied. Our task is to do everything we can to ensure that bullying stops, head of education and youth Minna Rovio says.

Bullying happens not only at school, but also, for example, in hobbies and on social media.

- The experience of bullying is personal for everyone. The main rule is that everything is addressed and nothing is underestimated, the curator of the Koske school center Sari Rantala Exotesta states.

Mediation and discussion

In school centers, bullying is tackled according to jointly agreed action models. The work is done together with the school's adults and student care.

Small cases of disputes and bullying are resolved with the help of the peer mediation model VERSO. In the model, school adults and students trained as mediators help the parties themselves find a solution to the dispute.

Based on the discussion, an agreement is made, the implementation of which is monitored.

- Follow-up is important in general, because learned operating methods can be persistent, the headmaster of Vuoksenniska School Center Ville Laivamaa says.

More serious situations are dealt with in accordance with the Basic Education Act.

The student and the teacher participate in educational discussions, if necessary also the principal and guardians. The results of the discussions are recorded in Wilma.

Traditional consequences such as a follow-up session, a written warning and temporary dismissal are also in use.

A criminal report is filed for illegal acts.

- Bullying very often fulfills the characteristics of a crime. It can be, for example, abuse, illegal threats or pinching. In these cases, a criminal report is filed, and the authorities are involved in investigating the case, Rovio says.

Prevention with many different means

So that situations do not progress to bullying or a matter for the authorities, there are many preventive procedures in use.

Emotional and interaction education is held for students once a month, and every school has support students.

In addition, class-specific anonymous surveys are carried out in the school centers, which are used to find out the bullying situation in the classes.

Adults play a key role. Cooperation between school adults and guardians is extremely important.

Everyone's goal is that it is good to come to school.

- There must be easily approachable, safe adults there. We can all influence that, Rantala sums up.

Information for the text has also been provided by the headmaster of the Mansikkala school center Lasse Tiilikka, curator of the Eksoten Vuoksenniska school centerAnu Tarhonen and the head of the operational unit of Eksoten Family Center's school curator services Heidi Pietinen.

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