School violence – an allarming phenomenon

School violence is still an allarming phenomenon in Romania, especially since official data show that it happens more and more often, Salvaţi Copiii non-government association representatives claim.

A three-day debate in Bucharest discusses prevention of school violence and the fight against online violence.

One proposal is that a direct and interactive space for communication between children and public authorities’ representatives should be set up, in order to improve security in the Romanian schools.

Institutions concerned with children’s safety should be more careful with their priorities and their actions, so that schools are safer, Alexandra Nemeş, programme manager at the Salvaţi Copiii Organization. The measures adopted up to now, such as installing webcams in schools, have had no remarkable results and have not made violent acts any rarer.

‘We should invest in parents’ and children’s education, in improving the communication skills of teachers. I do not think that installing webcams and hiring more guards in schools will eradicate this phenomenon. It can only help monitor it, but the problem can only be solved through education’, Alexandra Nemeş said.

One of those that tighter security in public schools is aimed at, a student from a school in the Rahova district from Bucharest, told me that fights are a day-to-day problem there.

None of the supervision methods has proved efficient until now.

‘It’s hard for me to live in this neighbourhood because when I leave school in the evening students fight. Teachers do not get involved in these conflicts. They tell students to settle the matter during recess or they just let them talk, but they never break them apart. The guard is old and rarely watches the monitor to see what is going on in school’, the student claims.

There were 2 000 violent acts in school in one year in Bucharest alone, data from the Bucharest School Inspectorate show.

Apart from these data, a study of the Centre for Psycho-Pedagogical Assistance Bucharest shows that more than half of the students are abused both at home and in school.

Translated by: Gabriela Lungu

MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University