Dubai school gets tough on bullies

His personal experience with bullies led Jeremy Williams to join his school's Anti-Bullying Committee to encourage other students to speak up.

Jeremy Williams, 18, is the vice president of the Anti Bullying Committee in Raffles World Academy. His personal experience with bullies encouraged him to join the committee and encourage other victims to speak up. Jeffrey E Biteng / The NationalShow less

DUBAI // Jeremy Williams, a Grade 11 student, was bullied by his schoolfriends two years ago because he was overweight.

But instead of enduring the humiliation, the 18-year-old Raffles World Academy student decided to speak up.

“I wasn’t in the best shape and got called names a fair bit,” he said. “It was quite demeaning and I lost the will to socialise.

“It wasn’t nice being bullied and it went on for a couple of months. I then talked to my parents and teachers about it. They took action against them.”

It was his experience that inspired him to join the school's Anti-Bullying Committee (ABC) to encourage other students to speak up. The committee was formed in September 2011 by the pupils in a bid to raise awareness and reduce bullying incidents in their school.

Jeremy, the ABC vice president, joined the call on Tuesday to urge victims from his school to come forward and warn bullies that they will not be tolerated.

"One of the reasons I joined ABC was because I know what the victims could be going through and want to help them."

Students from Grade 6 onwards were told that bullying wasn’t acceptable and bystanders also had an important responsibility in reporting the bullies and helping victims.

The student-led ABC said it regularly helped resolve bullying complaints.

“We get cases of students getting beaten up, teased, insulted or made to feel uncomfortable on a daily basis,” said Amaani Bashir, 16, a Grade 11 student and the president of ABC.

“We don’t have a lot of extreme cases. It is usually a lot of name calling and teasing. There have been instances where students have been suspended or asked to leave.”

In a recent incident, a student approached them after being intimidated on Facebook by other pupils.

“Ten to 15 students were criticising and threatening a Grade 9 girl. We intervened and put a stop to it. Disciplinary action was taken against some of the students,” said Amaani.

“Our big message is for bystanders to not be passive and for victims to come forward. Bullying is a serious issue and can cause mental problems going ahead.”

Workshops were also held for parents and teachers on Tuesday on how to spot signs of a bully as well as a victim.

“If a child is a victim, they are reluctant to go to school, there is a decline in academic performance, problems of stolen belongings, bruises, crying spells and withdrawal,” said Samineh Shaheem, the director of learning and development of Kawader, which initiated the “Bolt Down on Bullying” campaign in 12 schools.

She also told parents how they could spot if their child was intimidating other students.

“If a child is a bully, they could lack sensitivity, lack respect for authorities, be cruel to animals and have an exaggerated sense of importance.

“Bullying can cause emotional tsunamis and can have an effect for the rest of your life. Through my work as a psychologist, through reading and speaking to people, I have realised that people face many issues because of being bullied in school.

“I wanted to get to the grassroot of the problem. The UAE previously knew very little about bullying and did very little about it. I want to help find tailor made solutions for the UAE.”

The students hope they can reach out to their peers to set up similar clubs at their schools.

"Our aim is to eradicate bullying and spread awareness to other schools," said Zaeem Motim a Grade 9 student. "We hope that by September 2014, we can start such a committee in other schools, like the Dubai International Academy, our sister school."