Signs of Bullying

Children may:

• be frightened of walking to and from school (Fear of meeting a controller, or ambush or beating)
• change their usual route (same reason)
• not want you to go on the school bus (bags thrown around the bus, out of window, covert beating, threats, insults, no proper supervision)
• beg you to drive them to school (attacks etc on the way even by those accompanying)
• be unwilling to go to school or be 'school phobic' (general fear of continued bullying including homophobic bullying)
• feel ill in the mornings (fear and stress)
• start truanting (to avoid the pain)
• begin to do poorly in their school work (stress, fear, sometimes being asked for work to be copied)
• come home with black eye, bruises etc
• come home regularly with clothes or books destroyed (result of physical bullying)
• come home starving (bully taking lunch or dinner money)
• become withdrawn, start stammering, lack confidence (extreme fear and stress)
• become distressed and anxious, stop eating (extreme fear and stress, feeling of hopelessness, due to one or other form of bullying)
• attempt or threaten suicide (feeling of hopelessness, possibly due to bullying that he or she can not verbalise)
• cry themselves to sleep, have nightmares (feeling of no redress, hopelessness)
• have their possessions go missing (bullying, robbery)
• ask for money or start stealing (to pay the bully)
• continually 'lose' their pocket money (payment of bullies or blackmail)
• refuse to talk about what's wrong (fear of bully threats, hopelessness)
• have unexplained bruises, cuts, scratches (physical bullying)
• begin to bully other children, siblings (many bullied children do this)
• become aggressive and unreasonable (taking out frustrations on other targets)
• give improbable excuses for any of the above (fear, hopelessness, no redress)
• get upset after receiving text message or after computer visit (cyber bullying)
• spend too much time in room alone (unable to talk about the cyber bullying)

Main source of Signs above: Kidscape (parentheses and extras added by me)