Bully Aware

Under the Cobra Self Defence banner we have developed the 'Bully Aware' programme utilising aspects of the law within the UK.

Unlike other ‘anti bullying’ programmes ours has been written to focus on educating children to identify certain aspects of this horrible situation encouraging them to speak out to teachers, parents and friends.

We also look at supporting the victim with regards to their legal rights and what they can do to defend themselves both verbally and physically.

The programme mainly focuses on verbal and physical bullying and a fact which is missed by many with both aspects is that they are both are crimes! Verbal bullying is harassment, physical bullying is assault - even worse and dependant on the reason for the bullying it could even be considered as a hate crime!

We don’t believe we can ever stop it but education can help to prevent it. In fact the term 'bully' is outdated and should be replaced with 'offender' as they are breaking the law by their actions given that the legal age of criminal responsibility with in the UK is 10 years old (12 in Scotland).

We also look at school rules relating to no fighting reiterating that this is absolutely correct. However everyone has the right to defend themselves in law and our programme focuses on that too. Fighting by definition is 2 people trying to hurt each other, self defence (a right under common law) is one person trying to hurt another and the other stopping them. Consideration therefore needs to be given when/if a victim reacts to their bully (offender) either verbally or physically, that they may be doing so as a victim of crime acting within the law. Any punishment which follows for doing so could then be seen as an infringement of their rights under 76 of the Criminal Justice & Immigration Act 2008 Common Law Self Defence.

For further information or to receive a full copy of the Bully Aware programme contact us by clicking here now