Russia mulls law against school bullying – Vedomosti
As many as 38% of Russians have encountered the issue, according to a recent poll
Russian lawmakers will consider a draft bill aimed at tackling bullying in schools, Vedomosti has reported. A recent poll suggested that roughly four out of ten people in the country have encountered the problem in some form.
The bill has passed a reading at Russia’s Civic Chamber, a civil society institution that has consultative powers, Vedomosti wrote on Sunday, citing the text of the document. The next step is submission of the bill to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
The draft introduces a legal definition of bullying as systematic (more than twice) deliberate infliction of harm through violence, humiliation, and mockery.
The bill suggests setting up mediation services to facilitate early resolution of conflicts among students. The mediators’ role would be to prevent bullying and address antisocial behavior among students.
The services can be established within schools or outside them at institutions that offer psychological, medical, or social assistance.
Formally, schools already have mediation services, as recommended by the Education Ministry more than ten years ago. However, these services are not widely used, psychologist and lecturer at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration Tatyana Pryakhina told Vedomosti.
Schoolteachers should not be part of the mediation service as they tend to take sides in conflicts and even, consciously or not, initiate bullying, she argued.
Under the new legislation, schools would be required to report identified cases of bullying to social services. If the bullying involves legal violations, schools will be obliged to inform the police.
The plans to introduce the bill to the State Duma in January were previously announced by the State Duma Committee on Youth Policy.
The draft law is a “framework” which will be followed by “other bills,” Yana Lantratova, co-author of the document and first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, told Vedomosti.
As many as 38% of Russians reported having encountered school bullying in some form, according to a survey published by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center in September. Of these, 25% said they were personally bullied during their school years, while 19% stated that their children or grandchildren had experienced bullying. Among those affected, 89% identified classmates as the primary source of aggression, while 31% cited teachers as perpetrators.
