The procedure regarding the mechanism of anonymous signaling of the facts of violence and the suspicions regarding the drug use in schools was approved by order of the minister and published in the Official Gazette. Thus, the problem of signaling is solved, but for interventions it takes a lot more.
Aggression in the school environment is far beyond the official photo data: Adevărul Archive
The cases of violence in the school, including the cases in which the students are victims of the teachers, can be notified anonymously, and these notifications will be investigated at the school level and, depending on the severity of the facts found, the other institutions with settlement competences will be announced. The procedure regarding the mechanism of anonymous signaling of the facts of violence and of the suspicions regarding the drug use and other deviations from the rules of good conduct in the pre -university education units was approved by order of the minister and was published on June 3, in the Official Gazette. This procedure solves the problem of the alarm signals that can be drawn, instead it will take more to intervene to solve these cases and prevent similar ones, draws the attention George Roman, advocacy-director within the Save the Children’s Organization.
How do you notice, what are the facts that can be reported
The procedure established by order of the minister provides for the methods of referral, the facts that can be reported anonymously, the procedure for analyzing the notifications and even elements of protection of the person notifying.
The order provides for three possibilities to address the complaint: the physical box with notifications-located in an accessible and visible place within the school, with the provision of the anonymous referral forms (including the form was approved by this order); the electronic form-available the site of the educational unit; dedicated e-mail address-is made through a dedicated transmission channel that does not save the address of the person who made the complaint.
There are six categories of facts that can be noticed anonymously, respectively:
– cases of violence between pre -preschool/preschoolers/students committed in the school environment;
– the cases of violence committed on the pre -school/preschoolers/students committed by members of the personnel of the educational unit in the school environment;
– cases of violence on the personnel of the educational unit committed by students in the school environment;
– the suspicion of consumption of psychoactive substances (drugs);
– the existence of situations of the type: suspicion of port or use, without law, of dangerous objects; suspicion of involvement in other crimes – theft, robbery;
– cases of suspicion of violence committed on the child outside the school environment.
“Any approach of identification or intimidation of the person who notices will be considered a disciplinary deviation”
All the facts reported anonymously are analyzed by the Commission for the prevention and combating of violence, corruption and discrimination in the school environment and promoting interculturality (CPCV) from the educational unit. This commission investigates the ones reported on the basis of the legal norms in the future, adopts measures, and periodically draws reports on the measures adopted. All this commission also aims to apply the measures adopted.
The procedure also stipulates that, if the identity of the person who made the notification is known, measures will be taken to anonymize the identity. The identity will be known only by the director of the educational unit, respectively the person/persons designated by the director have access to the box and/or the dedicated e-mail.
The notification is sent for settlement to the Commission only after anonymization. “Any approach of identification or intimidation of the person who notices will be considered a disciplinary deviation and will attract sanctions according to the law. Any reprisals or discrimination to which the persons who signal acts of violence are subjected, if their traces become known or they declare in public that they have reported the respective facts are considered to be a disciplinary deviation”is shown in the order.
“Schools should not only remain in this mechanism”
The facts referring to the anonymous reporting procedure are also in the category of those for which in the past there have been major identification difficulties, which represents a great step forward.
It is for example the case of acts of violence of the teachers on the students, who are most often missed or the parents believe that they should not notice them because they will be exposed to the entire teacher and the children will suffer, George Roman reports. “This formula for anonymous reporting could cause many parents to pass these fears and even send the notifications. This is also taking into account a study that you save the children in a few years ago, representative at national level, and which show that in the education system 2% of the children reported that they were hit quite often.”said the programs director within Save the Children.
At the level of the whole country there are thousands of such cases, so that the new method of referral, which must be implemented in each school unit in the country, it may be a reality other than the one for which there are at this moment at the level of the ministry.
The procedure also refers to drug use, and in this regard, the figures could change after a year after reporting, believes George Roman.
“Children report drug selling right in the gymnasium, but nobody knows anything. We do not have a situation from the ministry. They could support them. However, what it must be said is that if we refer only to bullying, schools should not remain in this mechanism. To consider that things, ready, will be resolved in time because look what box of complaints we receive and how quickly we intervene. The Commission I think will not cope if such an anonymous referral formula will be successful, because it has to take into account all types of complaints and it would even need to involve some schools from outside schools. It is necessary for these commissions to be doubled, or at least supplemented by persons, experts, who can intervene, or the social services that must be active in solving the cases received by the commission ”, draws the representative of Save the Children.
Bullying is a learned behavior, emphasizes Roman, children without reproducing the interaction patterns they see in their parents, teachers or in the media, and for this reason, schools should take into account information activities, debates of rules to be transposed into a friendly language for children and to attract the school.
It would be recommended to organize small structures of students to discuss bullying, to invite personalities from outside the school, to exchange anti-Bullying ambassadors (children from other schools to exchange experiences and even propose the organization of debates with the participation of students from other schools, so that each one can present to George).
“Bullying is a learned behavior, because when you have a child who agrees you have to look beyond it. Invariably you will find a sensitive situation in which the child was put, whether we speak of domestic violence, or violence in the school system, adult violence on children. Or what he receives from the time spent on different social networks. Bullying exploits, we know well, asymmetries. Whether we are talking about strength, the power to control someone else, the fact that in them the school even ironizes the acts of bullying or are overlooked and then they become current currency in the interaction between children, “ explains George Roman.
The order is useful, “But we cannot keep this formula only and consider that we will have in the future an improvement of the phenomenon”, emphasizes the representative Save the Children. There will be alarm signals that the Commission will receive, but it is also a need for education for healthy relationships between children, “From that hidden curriculum of the schools, which is given by the values promoted by teachers or the way the normal communication principles can be positively influenced by how teachers, in turn, communicate with students or with other members of the school staff.”.
The possibility of noticing under anonymity serious facts must be doubled by activities seriously organized by schools regarding the education of children for positive relationships between them. And the teachers will need training in order to react in the situations of violence between students and also training in the way they need to relate to school activities and how they react to students, different behaviors that could be considered problematic.
“It is welcome, because I saw that the spectrum it refers to is wider and does not only include bullying, and this is very good, but it takes a lot of education. For both teachers and children ”, George Roman emphasized.
Experts from other states, said the representative of Save the Children, found in the studies to put basal to the anti-Bellying programs in their countries that it becomes official to prevent bullying situations or to report them, when students who have a certain quality appear, for example Anti-Bullying Ambassador, “Reporting no longer becomes bread, it gets another meaning in the children’s minds.”
“It becomes a kind of responsibility. And then the child is no longer regarded as a founder, but as a student who is trying to get help or try to help someone else who is the victim of a bullying fact. There is an overturn of values. Because we talk about it. When children are involved in these processes inside the school, a propagation of values among students is automatically done. They absorb more easily what the adult wants from them when he is directly involved in the story that concerns him, such as bullying ”, concluded the programs director within Save the Children.
For a good ability to intervene, it is necessary to decrease the norm of students who belong to school counselors and even co -opt of specialists, as is the case of psychologists, outside the school.
