East Otago High School has zero tolerance for bullying and will deal with any incidents immediately when they become known to the staff at school.

Whether bullying is physical, verbal, or social (relational), four widely-accepted factors can be used to identify it:

• Bullying is deliberate - harming another person intentionally
• Bullying involves a misuse of power in a relationship
• Bullying is usually not a one-off - it is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time
• Bullying involves behaviour that can cause harm - it is not a normal part of growing up.

Bullying can happen anywhere, in person or online (cyberbullying), at any time, and can be verbal, physical or social (relational). It can be obvious or hidden.

Kids who bully use their power — such as physical strength, knowing something embarrassing, or popularity — to control or harm others. Bullying is when one student (or a group of students) keeps picking on another student again and again to make them feel bad. They say or do things to upset them, make fun of them, stop them from joining in, or keep hitting or punching them.

The school runs a number of educative programmes to understand the type of bullying that may occur, the harm that it has on those targeted by bullying and ways to be an upstander  instead of a bystander.

When the pastoral team are informed of any bullying incident we drop tools immediately and investigate.

The person running the investigation follow the principles of natural justice - which means you must act fairly in the circumstance. Being fair, at its simplest, involves treating people with respect. In part, that will mean taking account of people’s knowledge, abilities and culture. Everyone should know what is happening and what is at stake.

The person investigating will look at:

What happened?

How serious was it?

What needs to be done about it?

Once it is clear what all the issues are and who has been involved we will decide on the appropriate actions to take. This needs to be carefully considered with consultation with parents a vital part of the decision making. Being a restorative school we will look to repair the harm that has been created by the bullying behaviour to the victim. Through restorative conversations and conferences we will explore the harm to all relevant parties and how we are going to make this right. It is not uncommon for parents to be involved in these conferences to give the students a wider appreciation of all the people affected. Conference agreements are co-constructed with all participants and followed up on a regular basis. By building and maintaining positive, respectful relationships within a school, staff to staff, staff to student, student to student, and with the students whanau, these serious issues are more easily managed. 

The outcomes we are looking to create is a school environment that is safe for all students, inclusive and accepting of diversity.

At times the bullying behaviour can be very discrete and seemingly at a lower level but we want to know about these types of antisocial insidious behaviours right away so we can deal with them straight away.

Please contact the school at any time to raise any concerns (big or small) so we can create an awesome environment for all students, staff and the wider community.