From the online comments board

Over 360 bullying referrals made in 2021

I was a school headmaster in Australia for nine years and much of my time was taken up with complaints of bullying. I would estimate that around 80 per cent of complaints involved girls bullying other girls with aggression and/or exclusion from friendship groups. It is rarely as simple as parents and others characterise it – i.e. victim and perpetrator.

Often, the roles are interchangeable and bullies become victims and victims become bullies at different stages. Often, there is engagement in harassment by each party until one has had enough and wants it to stop and then claims bullying. It is then that parents get involved and demand action. It is at this late stage that the issue is difficult to stop because one party clearly has the advantage.

Photo: Shutterstock.com

The answer is to teach children not to engage/retaliate when criticised or harassed, in the beginning, report it immediately and for staff to act to resolve the initial conflict. – Rupert Grech

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, the foundation’s chair, said the only way forward for a peaceful co-existence were restorative practices, where the victim and perpetrator listened to each other.

While the best approach to co-existence may be the one explained above, if that victim girl were to be my daughter, I would not want her anywhere close to the perpetrators, not to listen to them, not to talk to them, nothing at all. I would only want one thing: to get them out of sight once and for all. Forgotten.

Call it redirection, if you want a scientific term of some sort that sounds diplomatic.

So while the foundation’s chair may be thinking holistically, wanting the good of the perpetrators as well apart from the good of the victims, I as a parent make it very clear, that the perpetrator will have to find their therapy somewhere else but not with my victim kids. The perpetrators can go seek help elsewhere.

Seems like the foundation’s chair forgot the grave violence the victim was inflicted with. – Ramon Seguna

Talk is cheap: 130 cases of bullying referrals came from primary schools. However, currently the vast majority of PSCD teachers who have specialised pedagogical training to address bullying are doing replacements. Politicians and their political appointees say one thing and do the exact opposite. – Winston Smith

I lost a friend and my home: neighbour who witnessed Miriam Pace house collapse

While the Zerafas and the Sammuts are struggling with Joseph Muscat’s legacy of a free -for-all in the building “industry”, we find out that, after being kicked out of Castille, the disgraced prime minister was stealthily given an office by the government from which he could continue his revolving door activity! It is not fair for the public to foot the bills for these unfair set-ups. – Jon Schembri

Loss of life and a tragedy that could have been easily avoided, yet, we are still a lot behind. Seems that responsibility has never been such a concern in our small island. Hopefully, the least that can be done is give them back their property as soon as possible. May God take care of the family that lost their mother while being at her own house. – Andrew Scicluna

Oh, it’s only two years, too busy with digging more holes for building more ugly concrete monsters, call us back in another five years. – Eduard Azzopardi

A cruel tragedy that’ll haunt our hearts forever. This is injustice personified. – Mario Zammit

The fate of Pace could have easily been mine 20 years ago had I not taken immediate legal action to put a stop to excavation going on next door that would have destroyed local underground heritage and seriously prejudiced my third party rights. My thoughts and prayers go with the Pace family and neighbours who now face several years of waiting for justice to be carried out and seen to be carried out. – D. Galea

Responsible paid. Case is closed. – T. Borg

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