Website bans not enough in battle against bullies, says FF

PARTY POLICY:BANNING A website will not change the danger posed by cyberbullying, Fianna Fáil education spokesman Charlie McConalogue said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of a party policy on promoting mental health for young people, Mr McConalogue said merely imposing a ban on a site would not stop young people being bullied, either online or in person.

He was commenting as the funeral was taking place of 13-year-old Erin Gallagher, who was allegedly bullied online before taking her own life last Saturday.

The Donegal North East TD said he believed equipping young people, training them to deal with bullying in all its forms and making sure there was peer support was the correct approach.

The new Fianna Fáil policy Promoting Positive Youth Mental Health recommends that schools and colleges develop their own mental health promotion plans, and be accredited with a “positive schools flag”, in much the same way green schools flags are awarded. The plan would involve all levels of schools and would at second level incorporate a resourced and renewed guidance counsellor system.

Each school would put in place a care team to oversee the implementation of its mental health initiatives, to be made up of staff, students, parents and “appropriate external bodies”.

The policy, written by the party’s Seanad spokeswoman on Education, Averil Power, recommends that Headstrong be funded to establish a “jigsaw” centre in every county, modelled on the existing operation in Co Meath. In these “accessible community-based centres”, young people could get access to appropriate professional support in a welcoming environment. Psychologists and psychiatrists would divert hours from their HSE commitments to attend such forums with young people, Ms Power said.

Ms Power said Irish young people were tragically over represented among those who die from suicide. Quoting from the National Office of Suicide Prevention and Eurostat figures for 2009, Ms Power said the State had the fourth highest suicide rate among 15 to 24-year-olds in the EU.

The Samaritans ( samaritans.org), 1850-609090. Aware ( aware.ie), 1890-303302.