School bullying, also known as bullying, is a problem that seriously affects coexistence in classrooms.
Often, its causes are linked to power dynamics, insecurities, or unresolved family problems.
Identifying if someone suffers from this problem can be challenging, but there are signs that can help detect it.
Signs such as changes in behavior, avoiding school, lack of interest in social activities or sudden health problems may indicate that a child or young person is being bullied. To work on this problem, it is vital to foster spaces for dialogue and empathy.
Mediation programs, such as the one implemented in Cali, have become a valuable resource to prevent and combat this situation.
Against school bullying
The school mediation program implemented in Cali, with the graduation of 250 new mediators, seeks to reduce conflict and aggressiveness in public educational institutions.
Its objective is to counteract bullying and improve school coexistence. Mediators, trained to resolve conflicts and promote dialogue, play a key role in transforming school coexistence and building peace.
The graduation ceremony was held at the Council headquarters with the presence of the Rector of the Official Educational Institution, José María Carbonell, Attorney, Carlos Arturo Morales, who has developed a model of peacemakers in the educational headquarters that he directs, managing to reach this year 2023 to 12 public school establishments, reducing cases of depression, anxiety and other factors that affect the psychological state of schoolchildren
Councilor Tania Fernández Sánchez, who was the author of this initiative that has legal support in Agreement 474 of 2020, highlights the importance of peaceful conflict resolution in the school environment.
Mediation initiatives not only aim to reduce aquienescola, but also to promote communication and understanding, essential to avoid violence and build peaceful coexistence in the classrooms.
“The peaceful resolution of conflicts is a tool for our students to resolve their differences through dialogue, respect differences and, in this way, improve coexistence in school environments,” said Fernández, who recalled that in Cali bullying and bullying among peers, reveals figures of up to 7 thousand minors dropping out of educational classrooms, failing to find ways to eradicate this type of practices.
Carlos Arturo Morales, manager and promoter of Agreement 474 of 2020 and who initiated the figure of school peace mediators, stressed the relevance of covering all the school sites that make up the Special District of Cali, to reduce conflict and aggressiveness, counteracting bullying, in addition to improving school coexistence in educational institutions.
Johana Mina, teacher at the República de Argentina educational institution, emphasized the value of these spaces for healthy coexistence.
“In a society like ours, where violence, attacks and bullying are frequent, mediation is a possibility to resolve conflicts peacefully, learn to communicate and understand that violence generates more violence. “It is precisely these spaces for dialogue that generate a social transformation that will allow us to achieve the peace we so long for.”
Read also: Identify if your child is a victim of bullying