I have the right to be myself

"I have the right to be myself": events for the International Anti-Bullying Day

At the initiative of the UN, starting from 2012, May 4 is annually celebrated as the International Anti-Bullying Day.

Bullying is an actual problem of modern society, which is most acutely manifested in the educational environment and can lead to unpredictable consequences. Society often underestimates this problem. Recently, there has been a trend towards an increase in the prevalence of bullying.

According to UNICEF, about 70% of children around the world are humiliated by their peers. Among European countries, Ukraine has one of the highest levels of bullying. In real or virtual life, every fifth teenager in the world acts as a victim, and every fourth - as an aggressor of bullying. And although in recent years there has been an increased activity in the discussion and awareness of the problem, it remains quite widespread throughout the world.

The pink shirt became the symbol of this day, so it is also called Pink Shirt Day). This happened when a student in Canada came to school wearing a pink shirt and became a victim of bullying because of it. Other students also wore pink shirts and t-shirts to show their support. And next year, Anti-Bullying Day became official in Canada.

Today's message is simple - wear and share pink. This means that our society strives to prevent bullying by combining kindness, understanding, acceptance and inclusiveness.

In order to prevent bullying, the work of psychologists, educators, teachers, parents and, of course, high school teachers is necessary. In order to raise public awareness of this problem and find ways to solve it, various measures are being taken.

Thus, during the week before the International Anti-Bullying Day, activities on the topic were held with lyceum students of grades 9-11 of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Lyceum with enhanced military and physical training in the Khmelnytskyi region by practical psychologist Olga Prokopova "I have the right to be myself." During the discussion of the topic, the deputy head of the lyceum for educational work, Serhiy Tarnavskyi, gave examples from his life about how insignificant ordinary jokes can become a significant problem in the student's life path.

Unfortunately, today in our country the problem of bullying is not always detected in time, which leads to tragic consequences. Therefore, a number of national telephone hotlines operate in Ukraine:

• Bullying Hotline 116,000;
• Hotline for violence prevention 116 123 or 0 800 500 335;
• National Police of Ukraine 102.