Bullying

According to UNESCO, school violence is a major problem. Its report, Behind the numbers: ending school violence and bullying, published in 2019, shows that more than one in three students (36%) has been involved in a physical fight with another student, and almost one in three (32.4%) has been physically attacked at least once in 2018. 

Commenting last week on the nondisclosure of the name of the private school where six students tied up a classmate with fishing line and the frenzy concerning personal data in Greece, I wrote that "soon, the news will say, 'Somewhere, some people tied someone up with fishing line.'"

The increase in violence and bullying at Greek schools is not and should not be treated as a public order issue.

Educators should have the tools to mobilize the school community and social services when they see a student showing problematic behavior, before the problem reaches the police. 

Schools themselves need to be strengthened to control the bullying epidemic.

The authorities and society have long lost the right to plead innocence and to dismiss as "isolated" all these incidents of teenage violence, all the bullying in an out of school, acts that capture the stereotypically "shocked" public's attention for a few days every time they occur.

In the latest incident of teen bullying, two boys aged 15 and 14 were arrested over the weekend and taken to a local police precinct for abusing two other minors, aged 14 and 12, in the northern suburb of Kifissia.

The pair are accused of approaching the two minors in a public area and threatening them with a sharp metallic object. T

Violence among teenagers is starting to reach epidemic proportions. But it should not become routine. 

Parents, educators, the state and experts - all need to come together in a campaign to convince our children that violence and bullying is not cool. Quite the opposite.

"Wanted" posters targeting university professors and the acts of bullying by groups of "indignant" students perpetuate a toxic culture in Greek academia.

After almost half a century of solid democracy, there is no excuse for preserving pockets of immunity inside Greece's universities.

A group of Danish citizens that settled for a while in a village outside Thessaloniki in northern Greece apparently belonged to a secretive Christian sect that is now accused of mistreating its followers, including by subjecting children and adults alike to corporal punishment.

Lawyers for Prince Harry asked a judge on March 17 to rule that a tabloid newspaper libeled the British royal with an article about his quest for police protection when he and his family visit the U.K.

In most cases, using common sense is the most appropriate and useful way for evaluating developments. For most people, regardless of ideology, some things are self-evident.