violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

122Violence against children in schools and educational settingsmay be used maliciously, to punish or bullychildren because they are ‘too effeminate’, ‘toomasculine’, or known or suspected to be gayor lesbian, or else just different in other disapprovedways.When boys call girls ‘sluts’, ‘lesbians’ or similarterms that question girls’ sexual morals orsexuality, they may be expressing resentmentof girls in general or anger, frustration or jealousy.A study in South Africa found that girlswho complained of being sexually harassedor abused by male students were often calledlesbians. 68 Similarly, boys may be called gay ifthey show too much respect for girls and donot participate in other boys’ sexual harassmentof girls.Bullying of known, suspected or alleged gayand lesbian students can take the form oftaunts, obscene notes or graffiti, unwelcomesexual advances, and mock rapes and can leadto brutal physical attacks. Though such bullyingis known to be common in many countries,most of the literature on the subjectpertains to Europe and North America. 69,70In many countries, homosexual activity isa criminal offence or, at least, highly stigmatisedwith the result that bullying andother forms of violence towards these groupsreceives little official attention, and are drivenunderground. 71The extent of bullyingThe 2001/02 Health Behaviour in SchoolagedChildren (HBSC) survey in developedand transitional countries in Central andEastern Europe found that 35% of schoolchildrensaid they had been bullied within thepast two months, with the percentage rangingfrom 15% in Sweden to 64% in Lithuania (seeFigure 4.1). 72 Recent surveys done in developingcountries as part of the ongoing GSHSfound similarly wide-ranging percentages ofchildren saying that they had been bulliedwithin the past 30 days (see Figure 4.2). 73The differing ‘past two months’ and ‘past30 days’ time-frames mean that the findingsare not strictly comparable but even wheretime-frames are the same, country comparisonsshould be made with caution becausethe reported incidence of bullying tends toincrease as specialists in education and childhooddevelopment make the public moreaware of the issue. 74The 2001/02 HBSC survey found that bullyingdecreased as children grew older and that,while similar percentages of boys and girls saidthey had been bullied, more boys admittedto bullying others. While bullying within sexgroups is common, when it occurs across sexgroups girls are much more likely to be bulliedby boys than vice versa. 75 Recent studies suggestthat around half of all children involvedin bullying are both victims and perpetrators,and that they are the most troubled of all childreninvolved in bullying. 76Bullying is just beginning to emerge as an issuein the Philippines, Thailand and other countriesof the East Asia and the Pacific region.In a survey in the Lao People’s DemocraticRepublic, 98% of girls and 100% of boyssaid they had witnessed bullying in schoolsand, while the precise nature or seriousnessof the bullying was not clear, the victims were