Guidelines for Teachers

2.10 Good Practice in Slovenia: Instructions with a Manual on Dealing with Peer Violence in Educational Institutions

“Instructions with a manual on dealing with peer violence in educational institutions” were created to help employees in public and private educational institutions better understand the phenomenon of peer violence and bullying and respond to it appropriately and effectively, especially in cases of severe violence. The document defines the terminology and key terms used in this field, the most common and current forms of bullying are listed and described, it gives us advice on how we can recognize bullying and the principles that we must respect while addressing and dealing with peer violence.

The manual also contains instructions which guide the action of employees in educational institutions when they recognise bullying and give the employees directions how to deal with the problem, define who to inform in such cases, what information needs to be documented, what to do next, who forms the team of experts dealing with the case, what the roles of individual professionals in the team are, who and in what way works with the victim, the perpetrator, observers and parents, and in which cases cooperation with external institutions is required.

The main principles that should guide the persons recognising and dealing with the cases of bullying are:

• Zero tolerance for violence: With this principle we express our attitude towards violence; we are determined to prevent all forms of violence in interpersonal relationships in educational institutions
• We trust the victim: This is the most important principle by which we justify the trust shown to us by the victim by telling us what happened to him/her. It is not necessarily that we know the whole truth, especially if the events lasted a long time and a larger number of people is involved. We may never know the whole truth at all. But it is necessary that we believe the victim, because without this we will miss the essence of the problem and cause the victim additional injustice and distress.
• Individual experience of violence: we do not judge violence by our own emotions and experiences. Each person individually experiences, feels and understands the violent act and its consequences.
• Violent behaviour is a choice. The perpetrator is responsible for the violence. Although it is about children, it is necessary to insist on responsibility (not necessarily punishment) for their actions, because we want to teach them to choose a different mode of behaviour next time.
• We do not minimize the violence.
• We do not promise too much to the victim.
• We help child find a way out of the situation.
• We do not face the perpetrator and the victim.
• We do not pass the responsibility for acting to others.