Every fifth high school student in Montenegro states that he was a victim of peer violence, and 56 percent of them witnessed this negative form of behavior, according to research by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Juventas.
The research was conducted during May and June of this year, on a sample of 882 students, in partnership with the Union of High School Students within the project Libela - Contribution to the preservation of multinational harmony among young people, which was financed by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights.
Ivana Vujović, executive director of the NGO Juventas, said that the data from earlier research is repeated - that less than 50 percent of high school students feel completely safe at school, about 50.5 percent of them do not feel completely safe or do not want to talk about it, while every tenth high school student does not feel safe at all or mostly.
"The research showed that over 50 percent of high school students believe that other students feel safe at school. "5,5 percent of high school students believe that they do not feel safe at all, mostly not and almost every fifth high school student does not feel safe at all (18.1 percent)," said Vujović at the presentation of the research in Pljevlja.
According to her, as reported by the PR Center, the research showed that every fifth high school student stated that he was a victim of peer violence.
"When we add to this data 9,1 percent of those who are not sure, because they may not know exactly what peer violence is and can recognize it, we have 30 percent of high school students who say that they have been victims of peer violence or that they are not sure if they have been victims violence", said Vujović.
She said that high school students who were victims of peer violence mostly talk to their parents about it, while 26 percent of them did not talk to anyone.
"When we asked them about the reasons why they didn't talk about peer violence, most high school students answered because they thought no one would help them. This is followed by the answer that they felt ashamed, because they were victims of peer violence, and there is a significant percentage of those who say that they did not know who to turn to. "Also, 12 percent of them said that they were afraid that they would not receive support and help and that the situation would further escalate," Vujović said.
She indicated that the majority of high school students witnessed peer violence, 56 percent of them.
"We also have information that a significant number of them say that they witness cases of peer violence at their school once a week, several times a week or every day, and 7,3 percent stated that they witness these cases every day," Vujović said.
Speaking about violence in the online sphere, Vujović pointed out that the research showed that the majority of high school students say that they have not experienced violence in the online sphere, 60,5 percent of them.
"Furthermore, the research showed that it happened more than once, once or did not want to answer. 40 percent of high school students felt hurt, scared or depressed because one of the students from their school wrote a comment or posted a photo on social media. via Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat or another social network," Vujović said.
She also said that most high school students believe that the punishments are not severe enough when it comes to peer violence.
"At Juventas, we do not believe that we should primarily act repressively when it comes to peer violence, but that we should act preventively," stated Vujović.
She indicated that high school students largely agree that there should be more education about peer violence in schools.
"When asked, 'What advice would you give to someone experiencing peer violence?', most high school students answered that they should turn to an adult for help," concluded Vujović.
Speaking about the recommendations, Vujović said that it is necessary to make schools completely safe and introduce purposeful interventions for the prevention and suppression of peer violence.
"There are already action plans, programs for the suppression of peer violence, teams in schools, but not all schools are familiar with the existing programs, not all school employees are sufficiently educated on the subject of peer violence, and there is no uniform control of the implementation of the foreseen measures for the suppression of peer violence in education. institutions", stated Vujović.
She pointed out that at Juventas they want this school year to be marked by positive changes in this area and as few cases of peer violence of all forms as possible.
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