School Guidance Counsellor Identifies Forms Of Bullying, Encourages Parents To Educate Children On Its Harmful Impacts

Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 28, 2021 (SKNIS): Tracey Wattley, a Guidance Counsellor at the Cayon High School, identified several forms of bullying affecting students and encouraged parents and guardians to educate their children on the harmful impacts of bullying.

“The traditional one that we normally look at is in terms of physical bullying where it has things that we can see [such as] the hitting, pushing, shoving, but over time we have seen that it goes beyond the physical aspect of things,” said Ms. Wattley, while appearing on the October 27 edition of Working for You. “There is also social bullying and peer bullying.”

Ms. Wattley touched on cyberbullying which consists of posting or sending negative content on social media platforms including hurtful pictures and videos, hateful messages, and threats.

“There is now with the internet, social media and technology, cyberbullying which is the most harmful type of bullying because it can sometimes go unseen and unrecognized for a very long time. The effects of it also are not things that we can just see with our naked eyes so we tend not to believe children or persons being cyberbullied when they come and report it because it is not something that we can just see.”

Guidance Counsellor Wattley reiterated the importance for parents and guardians and even teachers to educate students as the onus is on them to protect children from the negative consequences of bullying.

“In terms of the person and the children, I think it is important that parents should have conversations with their children on how to maneuver the technology in terms of what happens when it comes to bullying,” she said. “We need to educate our children about cyberbullying, what it is, how to recognize it, and what to do when it happens to you.”