Students vow to get tough on school bullies

The ideas came from this year’s Arun youth conference of some 70 delegates from five secondary schools in the district.

They presented their ideas at the conference, which will be debated by the Arun Youth Council before a decision is made about which ones to implement using some £700 from Sussex Police.

Some 15 schemes were put forward in all by the five groups of delegates.

They included setting up internal school helplines and websites to enable bullying to be reported, handing out leaflets, creating ten anti-bullying ambassadors to spread the word in schools about stopping bullying, peer mediation and victims’ support groups.

Alex Harman, 18, the youth council’s chairman, said: “Everyone has some experience of bullying at some level.

“If we can make it easier to report it, or stop it, then I feel we will have fulfilled our role as the elected youth councillors.”

One of the delegates, Urusha Rayamajhi, 15, of The Regis School, said: “The group I am in has been looking at diversity and how people should be treated the same even if they look different.

“We also want to make sure people who come from different areas should be helped.

“It could just be a case of saying ‘Hello’ to someone.

“Bullying is not nice and it’s better if we sort it out. It does not do anyone any good.

“It causes a lot of problems for many people and makes people feel bad about themselves.

“Everyone needs to aware of its effects.”

The money used to put the chosen ideas into action will come from a £1,500 grant from Sussex Police.

The rest was used to pay for expert speakers at the conference held at the University of Chichester’s Bognor campus.