LifeLine 2014 September 10th - 17th

The scenarios at LifeLine are constantly being revised, particularly those such as the Internet and Bullying Scenarios as technology moves them along at a pace.

Here is a brief report on the Bullying Scenario and the messages it brings home to the youngsters.  When asked to score the relevance and effectiveness of the new scenario, the teachers from the schools who attended gave it an unprecented full marks across the board.

Bullying Scenario - LifeLine 2014

The new bullying scenario at LifeLine is very powerful and bang up to date. The new set-up is a child's bedroom complete with posters on the wall and a laptop on the bed-side table and in the bed is the figure of a child.

The presenter begins speaking to the group about how a person's bedroom should be the safest place in the world for them when suddenly someone appears with a mobile phone, obviously texting on it. The presenter remonstrates with the texter and ultimately confiscates the phone. The discussion which follows turns on the fact that a phone can be used to bully someone - cyber-bullying. The laptop can also be a source of bullying of this kind and the point is that you cannot escape it even in your own bedroom.

On the opposite wall 3 words are displayed: emotional, physical and verbal. The students are asked to think about what kind of behaviour constitutes these types of bullying.

The last part of the scenario is the showing of a short film. A poem is read in a child's voice against a back-drop of scenes shot in black and white where a child in a red coat is seen being subjected to various types of bullying in a school setting. The final line of the poem is spoken by a man sitting in a car to highlight that bullied children grow up to be adults, often damaged by their experiences.

                       I AM

I am the person you bullied at school,
I am the person who didn't know how to be cool,
I am the person you alienated,
I am the person you ridiculed and hated.

I am the person who sat on her own,
I am the person who walked home alone,
I am the person you scared every day,
I am the person who had nothing to say.

I am the person with hurt in her eyes,
I am the person you never saw cry,
I am the person living alone with her fears,
I am the person destroyed by her peers.

I am the person who drowned in your scorn,
I am the person who wished she hadn't been born,
I am the person you destroyed for "fun"
I am the person, but not the only one.

I am the person whose name you don't know,
I am the person who just can't let go,
I am the person who has feelings too,
And I was a person, just like you.