Many of us watched with great interest BBC1‘s Panorama programme on April 10 about bullying in schools.
As a researcher of disruptive behaviour in schools for 20 years, following the headship of a tough secondary in Lambeth, I believe it is high time we established a national centre for the study of deviant behaviour in schools.
Such a centre would support work on bullying by agencies that currently only deal with specific ways of tackling bullying, such as counselling.
Bullying can involve verbal, physical and psychological abuse. A centre could help focus on key issues such as its relationship to criminality, and the current dearth of input from psychologists. It could also test new strategies for coping with deviant behaviour of all kinds.
Jean Lawrence Flat 10, Slade Court Watling StreetRadlett, Hertfordshire
