SAYING "NO" TO BULLIES!

Bullying is when someone, continually insults or hurts you. Many young people are bullied at school. But there are some positive ways to *solve the problem.

Tom Cruise, Peter Andre, and Michelle Pfeiffer have something in common: they were all bullied at school. These stars prove that bullying does not necessarily stop you from being successful, says Kidscape, a children's organisation in Britain.

Kidscape has some original ways of stopping bullies. The "bully box", foe example, is a box in school where students put notes about bullying. The important thing is to tell an adult about the bully.

Teachers usually learn how to recognise when a kid is being bullied But sometimes schools can't solve the problem alone. In a recent case in Britain, the police arrested a 16-year-old girl for bullying a 12-year-old girl. The *younger girl's mother said the school hadn't solved the problem, which had become very serious. So she went to the police.

But most bullies are stopped by the school or by the kids themselves. At the Martial Arts for Peace association in America, Dr Terence Webster-Doyle suggests discussing the problem openly with the bully. Dr Webster-Doyle teaches martial arts for self-defence, not for fighting. He says that if you know you can defend yourself, "you are not *afraid of the other person".

 

VOCABULARY

to solve = résoudre

younger = plus jeune (comparatif)

afraid = effrayé

 

 

QUESTIONS

  1. What do Tom Cruise and Michelle Pfeiffer have in common?
  1. they were very bad at school
  2. they didn't go to school
  3. they both had problems with other pupils

B. What are bullies?
  1. Pupils who harass other pupils
  2. People who fight against violence at school
  3. A children's organisation in Britain

 

C) What does Dr Webster Doyle recommend?

  1. making friends with bullies
  2. fighting as soon as there is a problem
  3. learning martial arts for self-defence

 

 

 

 

ANSWERS
A3 | B1 | C3