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Text-message bullies will face expulsion

Sarah Cassidy Education Correspondent
Tuesday 13 August 2002 00:00 BST
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School bullies who terrorise classmates with abusive text messages on mobile phones will face expulsion under a new government crackdown on bullying.

Every school in England is to be sent revised anti- bullying guidance next month, which will for the first time acknowledge the growing problem of message harassment.

Earlier this year, Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, announced plans to tighten procedures for expelling pupils by preventing bullies who are banned from school being reinstated by local authority appeals panels. Bullying and the possession of offensive weapons were added to the list of "one strike and you're out" offences.

The new guidelines will include advice on text-message bullying and warn victims to keep either the message or a record of what it said as evidence against tormentors. Victims' mobile operators should change their phone number free of charge if they can show it is being abused, Department for Education and Skills officials said.

Ms Morris included text-message bullying in the guidance after becoming concerned at research that showed as many as one in four victims of bullying at secondary school had received abusive mobile phone calls or text messages as part of the campaign against them.

The problem of text-message bullying has grown with the rapid expansion of mobile phone ownership among teenagers. It can also be harder for schools to identify than traditional bullying behaviour.

Statistics published by the children's charity NCH earlier this year showed a quarter of young people had been threatened via their computer or mobile, and 16 per cent had been bullied by a text message.

A DfES spokesman said: "There's evidence to suggest it is on the increase and, from our discussions with teachers, it is certainly something that they are now dealing with, and dealing with effectively."

The anti-bullying packs will offer advice to heads and teachers on how to deter text-message bullying and what to do when it happens.

Chris Keates, deputy general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said: "NASUWT supports strong measures against school bullies. Text messaging is another type of psychological bullying which is always difficult to detect but has a devastating effect."

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