Bullying Advice

Books, DVDs and Projects about Traveller bullying Beat the Bullies Gypsy Traveller Comic strip What to do about Bullying Facts and Figures This is Who We Are Download pdf from Children's Society Website (121kb) This is Who We Are (2007) highlights the extent of racial abuse aimed at children and young people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in England. Eight out of ten of those questioned (86%) had suffered racial abuse. Nearly two-thirds (63%) had been bullied or physically attacked. Many of the respondents admitted they felt socially excluded and wary of telling other people about their background, and that they resented how the word ‘Gypsy’ can be used as a term of abuse. One English Gypsy girl told a researcher that people “drag their children away, like we have AIDS or something”, while another young person commented, “we don’t like it when it’s said like a name call…that’s just racist.” - Atch Poggering Mande - Stop Bullying Me! The Speak Out project explores the issue of Racist Bullying of Travellers in school and gives advice on combatting it. The Speak Out project CD contains interviews with young Travellers, telling of their experiences of racist bullying. This CD can be obtained from; Margaret Wood Team for Traveller Education CPDC, Foster Road Trumpington, Cambridge, CB2 2NL 01223 508700 Email: margaret.wood@cambridgeshire.gov.uk - Read the fantastic "Beat the Bullies Magazine". -Sticks and Stones Video How do young Gypsy and Irish Traveller Children deal with racial abuse they encounter? From name calling, to physical abuse through violent and fatal attacks. This Video documents the experiences of young Gypsy and Irish Traveller children. Copies available from: East Sussex Traveller Education Service, PO BOX 4, County Hall, Lewes. BN7 1SG - In the BBC News article called "I feel like i'm being pulled back", Chantelle says that She's tried over the years to hide her identity as a traveller while at school, and sometimes she even "talks English" to escape the bullying. But her own accent usually leads to the cries of "pikey" she is all too accustomed to hearing. Read the article here - "It would start with name-calling, a string of obscenities flung at Lisa Devers as she arrived at school each day. Then the violence would begin, elbows in the ribs, shoving on the stairs, punching, kicking, scratching, spitting. Lisa is 15 and the child of a travelling family. She has attended, and left, four schools in the space of two years and will never go back. She has had her nose broken and is partially deaf after one particularly vicious beating. She wants to be a beauty therapist and knows she needs qualifications, but the bullying and intimidation are more than she can bear". Travelling Plight, The Guardian Newspaper, 2001. -"Stop Bullying Now": A guide for Gypsy and Traveller children, is a leaflet by STEP. Leaflets can be obtained from: Scottish Traveller Education Programme, The University of Edinburgh, Holyrood Road EH8 8AQ
Websites - Check out the Anti-Bullying Network: www.antibullying.net in Scotland. There is a Fairground Girl on the website called Amy. See her story: http://www.antibullying.net/ypamy.htm The website believes that children and young people have the right to live, to play and to learn in environments with a non-bullying ethos. - www.anti-bullyingalliance.org
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/bullying Lots of lnks and resources if you are suffering from Bullying What's the point? What's the point Of trying to be a nurse When all you get is grief. I know I can do it and I'm going to get through it. So what's the point? Gypsy, Gypsy, Gypsy Is all you get. So what's the point? Travellers is what we are. What's wrong with us? We're just like you. Nothing special. Nothing different. I can get A levels just like you. Just because I'm a Traveller doesn't Mean I can't. They call us Tramps, They think we're poor. WE'RE NOT! So what's the point? Some live in houses believe It or not. We're just like you. But what I'd like to know is WHAT'S THE POINT? KS3 student of Traveller Irish heritage, London This poem is taken from the DFES "National Anti-Bullying Poetry Competition: Winners Anthology". You can download the book from www.teachernet.gov.uk/bullying.