Nicaragua launches campaign against school violence, bullying after student killing

MANAGUA, September 21st, 2015 (EFE) The killing of a high school student by a classmate has focused attention in Nicaragua on the violence, bullying, and sexual harassment many children experience in schools.

President Daniel Ortega’s administration announced workshops, outreach programs and other measures to prevent bullying after a 19-year-old student was stabbed to death.

In Nicaragua, two-thirds of girls ages 10 to 17 say it is unsafe to use restrooms in their schools, a study, titled “Situation of Girls, Teenagers and Young Women in Nicaragua,” found.

The study was conducted in 2014 by a team of researchers from the Central American University, Plan Internacional Nicaragua and other groups from civil society.

Young females say restrooms are places “where there are more chances to be sexually abused or physically and psychologically mistreated,” the study said.

More than 50 percent of the girls interviewed said restrooms were made unsafe by male classmates who, in many cases, “record videos of them with their cellular phones or lift their skirts when they walk to the restrooms.”

UNICEF’s representative in Managua, Phillippe Barragne-Bigot, said school bullying had “terrible” consequences, causing “psychological destruction” in victims and setting bullies on a path of criminal behavior.

Witnesses to bullying also suffer an erosion of self-esteem since “they are afraid of becoming victims or turning into an aggressor,” the UNICEF official said.

Victims, in addition to experiencing self-esteem problems, “gradually lose the encouragement to make progress in their lives,” Barragne-Bigot said.

Bullying goes beyond schools and has an impact in the social and economic life of a country, Barragne-Bigot said.

The most common manifestations of violence in schools are insults, bad looks, beatings and mockery, officials said.

The government has called for active participation in the campaign by school principals, teachers and parents.