Zero School Harassment project to prevent bullying in Madrid

It will run throughout 2020 and will address minors who suffer harassment

Madrid will be making stronger and more coordinated efforts against school bullying, announced the Local Council. As it was made known earlier this month, a new project addressing this issue will be implemented over the course of 2020.

The forthcoming launch of the project under the name Acoso Escolar Cero (Zero School Harassment) was announced by Pepe Aniorte responsible for Families, Equality and Social Welfare. As he recalled, the initiative was already embodied in point 38 of the Government Agreement for the City of Madrid between Partido Popular and Ciudadanos.

"Today the municipal action against bullying is excessively diversified and uncoordinated making its effectiveness anecdotal" explained Aniorte. He stressed that the program encompasses three axes in order to promote this municipal action in an orderly and systematic manner.

The project will include a school mediation program in which students, teachers and families will work together to solve the conflicts that arise in the school. As Aniorte made clear, this program was debated in the 2016-2019 period but was never implemented.

Preventing school bullying with three axes

Another axis of is a specific training and awareness program for coexistence and conflict resolution aimed at students, which will address the following areas: egalitarian values, communication skills, emotional management and rejection of violence with the development of Decalogues of good treatment.

The third axis is a psychological intervention program specialized in violence between minors, which will pay direct attention to victims, aggressors and families and passive spectators. Likewise, the project will boast an approach scpecifically tailored towards LGBTI minors who suffer harassment.

The program will complement, reinforce and order the current informative talks offered by different departments. Aniorte has affirmed that awareness in these areas is essential and cannot be resolved simply with a talk of 40 minutes a year. Rather, an annual training course should be considered, giving meaning to the various talks.

According to Save the Children, in 2016, at least one in ten children suffers from bullying. An OECD study on the well-being of children and adolescents shows that bullying, both physical and psychological, is frequent and in the case of Spain it can reach as many as 14% of minors.