MORE MUST BE DONE TO TACKLE BULLYING IN SCHOOLS - MULHOLLAND

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 23rd Nov 2006

Liberal Democrat Schools Spokesperson, Greg Mulholland MP, has called upon the Government to do much more to tackle the problems of bullying in schools, following a survey by BeatBullying which has found that over a third of children who are absent from school are missing lessons because of bullying.

Signing an Early Day Motion, in Parliament tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams to mark anti-bullying week this week Greg said:

"It is clear that much, much, more effort must be made to tackle the problem of bullying, schools, teachers and the Government need to address this issue head on.

"Bullying is parent's single biggest concern about schools and these figures show alarming numbers children missing lessons because of the fear that they will be bullied.

"This is a problem that all too often goes ignored, teachers need proper training so that they know how to tackle and prevent bullying.

Bullying for whatever reason and by whatever means must be stopped. Children should be allowed to go school without fear of being picked on and isolated and it is our responsibility to ensure that this is the case."