RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

Amid a trou­bling rise in teenage sui­cides linked to bul­ly­ing in re­cent months, High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad has called for the es­tab­lish­ment of safe, judge­ment-free spaces at homes and schools where chil­dren can open­ly share their strug­gles.

He made the call on Fri­day dur­ing the Canaan Pres­by­ter­ian School’s an­ti-bul­ly­ing walkathon.

Seep­er­sad said chil­dren must have spaces where they can share their feel­ings with­out fear of judge­ment or re­tal­i­a­tion.

"Par­ents and teach­ers must take every re­port of bul­ly­ing se­ri­ous­ly. We must set up zones where chil­dren can talk about their hurt, fears, and dis­ap­point­ments," he said.

The walkathon was part of the school’s An­ti-Bul­ly­ing Week launched by the Par­ent-Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion. Seep­er­sad com­mend­ed the ini­tia­tive, high­light­ing the re­cent loss of young lives to sui­cide linked to bul­ly­ing. He urged stu­dents to seek help.

"If you are en­dur­ing taunts or phys­i­cal abuse, you need to know that you are not alone. Sup­port is avail­able," he said.

He al­so sent a mes­sage to bul­lies, say­ing their ac­tions have con­se­quences. Seep­er­sad al­so called on stu­dents to be "up­standers and not by­standers" when they wit­ness bul­ly­ing.

"Bul­ly­ing thrives on si­lence. If you are bul­ly­ing some­one, there may be is­sues you are fac­ing. Reach out to some­one for help," he added.

Seep­er­sad al­so en­cour­aged stu­dents to speak up. "A sim­ple ‘Stop’ or ‘That’s not okay’ can make a dif­fer­ence," he said. He added: "Your un­in­tend­ed si­lence very of­ten em­bold­ens the bul­lies to con­tin­ue their harm­ful be­hav­iour. So every time you wit­ness bul­ly­ing, you can elect to be part of the so­lu­tion or part of the prob­lem."

How­ev­er, he said not al­ways should a bul­ly be con­front­ed.

"Speak­ing up doesn’t mean that you must al­ways con­front the bul­ly. The re­sponse may be to with­hold your laugh­ter at the mean joke, or you can im­me­di­ate­ly em­brace the vic­tim, defuse the tense sit­u­a­tion, or you can sim­ply dis­tract the bul­ly by chang­ing the sub­ject," he ex­plained.

He al­so spoke about the grow­ing is­sue of cy­ber­bul­ly­ing.

"Un­like tra­di­tion­al bul­ly­ing, which of­ten ends with the dis­missal bell, cy­ber­bul­ly­ing is con­tin­u­ous. The anonymi­ty pro­vid­ed by the in­ter­net of­ten em­bold­ens cy­ber bul­lies to mount se­vere and per­sis­tent at­tacks," he said.

He urged par­ents to mon­i­tor their chil­dren’s de­vices and main­tain open com­mu­ni­ca­tion about on­line ac­tiv­i­ties.

Seep­er­sad em­pha­sized the need for sup­port groups in schools to as­sist both vic­tims and bul­lies. He said the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem must be up­dat­ed to teach young peo­ple re­spon­si­ble dig­i­tal cit­i­zen­ship.

"Each of us must al­so un­der­stand that we con­tribute to the prob­lem when we share or like harm­ful con­tent, and there is a crit­i­cal need to fos­ter a cul­ture of dig­i­tal em­pa­thy and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty," he said. Seep­er­sad urged every­one to be agents of change.

"We must all en­sure that our on­line spaces are places of con­nec­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion where learn­ing and growth are fos­tered, free from the fury of cy­ber­bul­ly­ing," he added.