Category Archives: Bullying

Teasing children about weight increases risk of self-stigma as adults, study finds

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Research reveals ‘long-lasting effects’ caused by pressure from parents, families, bullies and the media

Parents who tease their children about their weight are putting them at greater risk of feeling bad about their bodies decades later, regardless of whether they grow up to have obesity or not, a groundbreaking study has found.

Thirteen-year-olds who felt pressure from family members to shed pounds and endured weight-based teasing showed higher levels of internalised weight stigma when they turned 31, according to research by the University of Bristol published on Tuesday in the Lancet Regional Health Europe journal.

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Met police to return lost sim card of bullied schoolgirl who killed herself

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Force was previously unable to locate sim belonging to Mia Janin, 14, after investigation into her death in 2021

Scotland Yard will return the lost sim card and phone of a bullied schoolgirl who killed herself, after the items were found months after her family requested their return.

Mia Janin, a 14-year-old pupil at Jewish free school (JFS) in Kenton, north-west London, died on 12 March 2021. Police admitted losing evidence it had gathered following her death last year – including the teenager’s main phone, second phone and sim card – but have since recovered them.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Taunts, bullying… then groping: how sexual assaults are increasing in schools

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Billy (not real name) is now being home-schooled after bullying turned into physical violence

Starting secondary school had not been easy for Billy (not his real name). What started as verbal taunts from one boy soon saw him become the target of a group of four boys. Bullying became physical violence. Yet the abuse got even worse, escalating to sexual assault. The group would corner him in the toilets and grope and touch his genitals. Unsurprisingly, Billy’s mental health quickly deteriorated. He is now being home-schooled and he struggles to leave the house because of anxiety.

Billy is receiving support from Embrace, a charity that works with children who have been the victims of crime. He says that he is starting to feel stronger, while his parents say his panic attacks and nightmares are receding thanks to the support he is getting. However, what he experienced was part of an increase in “peer-on-peer abuse” that is worrying schools, police and professionals who work with young people.

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‘I’m victim of failing system,’ Mia Janin’s father says after inquest into girl’s death

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Coroner concluded 14-year-old girl took her life after prolonged and sustained bullying in person and online

The father of a 14-year-old girl who killed herself after being bullied has said his family are victims of a “failing system” after an inquest into her death.

Mia Janin, a year 10 pupil at the Jewish free school in Kenton, north-west London, was found dead at her family home in Harrow on 12 March 2021.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Less than half of Australian children who experience violence in sport tell an adult, world-first study finds

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Normalisation of violence in sport, like ‘tough love’ coaching, has discouraged children from speaking up, experts say

When Matthew* experienced violence from his soccer coach and teammates, he didn’t tell his parents out of fear it would mean giving up the sport he loved.

“I didn’t want them to withdraw me from sport altogether, because sport has always been everything in my life, it truly has.”

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Ex-wife of Boris Johnson to help Labour protect women from bullying at work

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Marina Wheeler KC to be tasked with strengthening rights to safeguard women who report workplace harassment

A leading barrister and ex-wife of Boris Johnson is set to be appointed as Labour’s new “whistleblowing tsar”, offering advice on proposed protections for women against workplace harassment.

Marina Wheeler KC will help the party with its plans to strengthen employment rights to safeguard women from abusive colleagues, the Independent reported.

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Family of boy, 13, who died after bullying attack get $27m from school district

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Diego Stolz died after being beaten by two middle school classmates at campus in southern California in 2019

The family of a 13-year-old boy who died after being beaten by two middle school classmates at their campus in southern California has secured a $27m settlement in what the plaintiffs’ attorneys are calling the largest bullying-related settlement in the history of US litigation.

Felipe and Juana Salcedo received the settlement from the Moreno Valley unified school district over the September 2019 death of Diego Stolz.

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Harvey Weinstein tried to bully me, reveals Joseph Fiennes

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The Handmaid’s Tale actor says the disgraced movie mogul threatened to end his Hollywood career

Joseph Fiennes, star of the television series The Handmaid’s Tale and of the 1998 hit movie, Shakespeare in Love, has explained why he turned down the chance to play major roles in a run of Hollywood blockbusters early in his career.

It was, he said, a reaction to bullying pressure put on him by Harvey Weinstein, who wanted to take control of his life, and Fiennes does not regret the decision.

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Senior civil servants vote to take a stand against bullying from politicians

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FDA union votes to use ‘all means available’, including ‘targeted legal action’ in wake of Dominic Raab scandal

Senior civil servants have voted to take a stand against inflammatory language from politicians and in favour of legal action to combat bullying, as former cabinet ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg and Dominic Raab renewed their attacks on officials.

Members of the FDA union passed a motion in favour of using “all means available” to challenge bullying and harassment of officials, including “use of targeted legal action”, in after the scandal that forced Raab to resign.

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Tories consider controversial plan to politicise civil service after Raab scandal

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No 10 adviser urges political appointments in a radical plan following crisis over bullying

Radical plans to bring in more “politicisation” of Whitehall by allowing ministers greater powers to appoint their own civil servants – including some with overt political affiliations – are being considered by the government’s own adviser on the civil service.

Writing in today’s Observer, the Conservative peer and former Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who is expected to report shortly to Rishi Sunak, says that in order for ministers to get the best advice possible, we need “to be more robust and less mealy mouthed about ‘politicisation’”.

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Dominic Raab resignation raises questions about Rishi Sunak’s judgment

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Sources say PM did not ask deputy to go despite bullying inquiry finding he engaged in ‘abuse or misuse of power’

Dominic Raab has been forced to quit as deputy prime minister after Rishi Sunak begrudgingly accepted an official inquiry that found his close ally bullied civil servants by acting in an intimidating and aggressive manner.

A five-month investigation by a leading employment barrister found that Raab, as foreign secretary, had engaged in “abuse or misuse of power” to undermine or humiliate staff. He was “intimidating and insulting” in meetings at the Ministry of Justice.

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Dominic Raab bullying claims: deputy PM refusing to resign after reading report – as it happened

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Dominic Raab denies wrongdoing after report on his behaviour delivered to Rishi Sunak this morning

Today’s announcement by the Association of School and College Leaders that it is to hold a formal ballot for national strike action for the first time in its history (see 9.49am) marks a significant development in the ongoing dispute between teachers and the government.

Up until now only members of the National Education Union (NEU) have taken strike action in England, with five more days of strikes planned for later this term. In addition a fresh ballot is to be held to provide the NEU with a mandate for further strike action up until Christmas.

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Australia’s public servants reported hundreds of bullying allegations in recent months

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Volume of allegations suggests harassment and discrimination remains a problem within the government workforce

Hundreds of public servants have reported bullying, harassment and discrimination allegations since the end of the last financial year, as government departments strive to improve workplace safety.

The culture of government workplaces has come under renewed scrutiny since the Albanese government’s respect at work bill became law in November, requiring employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate harassment and discrimination.

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Every fire brigade in England plagued by bullying and harassment claims, report finds

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Inspectors say ‘deeply troubling’ behaviour found at fire and rescue services across England may be ‘tip of the iceberg’

Every fire brigade in England is plagued with bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints, a damning report has found, and officials have called for drastic measures to clean up the service.

Inspectors urged bosses to carry out background checks on every firefighter, with those who fail being sacked, after long-awaited findings shone a light on “deeply troubling” behaviour in the emergency service.

A senior officer accused of calling a black colleague the N-word dismissing it as simply “having a laugh”.

A firefighter reporting a superior for making a racist comment, only to find his account dismissed because the alleged offender “wouldn’t behave in such a way”. The senior officer in question then threatened “to make his life hell”.

Two male firefighters mockingly told a female colleague they were “going to rape her”, before simulating it with her.

Some staff being reluctant to speak up after being told it would be “career suicide” to do so.

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Dominic Raab: more civil servants in bullying complaint than previously thought

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Some officials were signed off for ‘extended periods’ while others stayed at work to protect colleagues, says complaint made by 27 staff at Ministry of Justice

A single official complaint regarding the behaviour of the deputy prime minister Dominic Raab represented the concerns of 27 of his officials, the Observer has been told.

The group of Ministry of Justice officials are understood to be represented by a memo warning that some colleagues had been forced to take time off for “extended periods” as a result of having to deal with Raab. It states that others affected felt they needed to stay at work to stop extra pressure being placed on their colleagues.

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First Nations public servants report higher rates of harassment

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Survey finds 16% of Indigenous Australian staff experienced bullying or harassment – almost double the rate of their non-Indigenous coworkers

First Nations staff in the federal public service have reported higher rates of bullying and harassment in the workplace than their non-Indigenous colleagues for the past four years.

Each year the Australian Public Service Commission asks staff to complete a survey detailing their experiences, including whether they have been subjected to harassment and bullying in the workplace.

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Third of staff allege bullying in Raab’s private office team

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Exclusive: Leaked annual survey shows fourfold rise in harassment claims in justice ministers’ office

A third of the staff in Dominic Raab’s private office at the Ministry of Justice have claimed to have been bullied or harassed while working in their current team in the past year, according to an internal Whitehall survey.

The results of the civil service survey from this week, which have been leaked to the Guardian, show that 10 of the 33 people who worked most closely with the justice secretary said they had been a victim of bad behaviour.

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London fire brigade put into special measures over misogyny and racism

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Watchdog to monitor force closely after damning report revealed deep-seated behavioural problems

London fire brigade (LFB) has been placed into special measures by the chief fire inspector after a report revealing incidents of misogyny, racism and bullying.

The watchdog moved the LFB into an enhanced level of monitoring on Wednesday, citing concerns about “culmulative evidence” from its last inspection and later of unacceptable behaviour within the brigade.

His Majesty’s inspector of fire and rescue services, Matt Parr, said: “We should recognise that London fire brigade’s recent cultural review was commissioned by the brigade, whose leadership has accepted its findings without reservation.

“However, it is clear that the behavioural problems we highlighted earlier this year are deep-seated and have not improved. We will now examine London fire brigade’s improvement plans more frequently and more intrusively, and work closely with the brigade to monitor its progress.”

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Mother of London firefighter who killed himself welcomes damning report

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Exclusive: Linda Francois, whose son Jaden Francois-Esprit was bullied in Wembley, says culture must change

The mother of a firefighter whose death triggered a review into the culture at the London fire brigade, has welcomed the findings of a damning report.

However, Linda Francois, whose son Jaden Francois-Esprit killed himself in August 2020, said that much remained to be done and making real changes in the workplace for people like her son was what really mattered.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or by email at jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.

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