Who's encouraging bullying now?

I see that Mary Vernon is increasingly editorialising in The Bulletin. Her article on Saturday about bullying was a shocker – in particular her advice to “…tell our children who are being bullied: belt those who belt you, they will respect you much more”

While ignoring the overwhelming research that shows (amongst other things) that bullies have often themselves been the victims of bullying and/or adopt bullying behaviours as a way of avoiding bullying, she would be wise to consult with some experts on the issue rather than relying on a bit of home-spun advice.

There’s a plethora of advice and research available on the web which she could have drawn on to write an article that was useful to parents and kids alike - I’d suggest that she would have done the community a much greater service by, for example, reporting on developments such as this from her sister tabloid, The Courier Mail:

School bullies part of solution under 'shared concern' method of intervention