The Liberal Democrats in Harrogate: Protection from school bullies urged

SCHOOLS should all have a procedure for monitoring incidents of bullying and agreed sanctions against the bullies, Liberal Democrats urged yesterday after hearing first hand of the misery it causes to thousands of children.

Anne Jones, who contested Hove at the general election, said she had been bullied from the age of five to 14 by other girls and was a regular patient at the local hospital casualty unit as a result.

'There were not many days at school when I didn't hide away from bullying,' Mrs Jones told the conference.

A motion, passed overwhelmingly, called for each school to have a policy to deal with bullying and at least two members of staff available for confidential counselling. The conference was told that 800,000 children a year were victims of bullying.

David Droar, 15, of Chichester, West Sussex, said a child who reported a fellow pupil for bullying could not escape retaliation. Staff could also be bullies, he added.

Tony Saville, of Morecambe and Lunesdale, said pyschological bullying could be the most damaging and was harder to deal with. Often it took the form of ridicule and isolating a child, for example over clothing.

'I am old enough to remember when labels were on the inside of clothes. Unfortunately now they are more often on the outside and quite often that is where it starts with isolating an individual,' Mr Saville said.