Bullying and Violence at School

What changed between 2020 and 2026?

The original version of this article opened with alarming UNICEF figures: about 150 million students aged 13–15 had reported peer violence in or around school, while nearly 720 million school-age children lived in countries without full legal protection from corporal punishment at school. These figures are real, but they come from UNICEF’s 2018 report An Everyday Lesson: #ENDviolence in Schools. In the 2026 edition, they are therefore used as historical context rather than presented as current statistics.

The problem itself has not disappeared. In November 2025, UNICEF Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science announced an expansion of their joint work on safe school environments, online safety and cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can no longer be treated as a separate issue from school climate: a situation may begin in the classroom and continue in a group chat, social network or gaming platform — or move in the opposite direction.

Not every conflict is bullying

This is the most important distinction for teachers. The Bulgarian Ministry of Education’s mechanism for counteracting bullying and violence defines bullying as a specific form of violence between children. Three characteristics are central: the behaviour aims to hurt or humiliate; one side has a stronger or dominant position; and the behaviour is repeated over time. Repetition and the imbalance of power are what distinguish bullying from many one-off conflicts.

In an ordinary conflict, students may be relatively equal, their roles may change, and both may have a realistic opportunity to withdraw. In bullying, the targeted child often cannot stop the behaviour through their own efforts. For that reason, the approach “let them shake hands and sort it out” may be inappropriate when the actual pattern is systematic domination, exclusion or humiliation.

What can bullying look like at school?

The most visible form is physical bullying: hitting, pushing, tripping, causing pain, damaging property or taking belongings. Psychological and social bullying can be harder to identify: repeated insults, ridicule, threats, extortion, humiliating nicknames, rumours, deliberate ignoring and exclusion from the group. The Bulgarian mechanism also identifies sexual harassment as well as cyberviolence and cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying may include humiliating posts, abusive or threatening messages, sharing photos or videos without consent, account or identity theft, and organized exclusion or attacks in online groups. The digital environment has a particular feature: content can be seen by many people, copied and remain accessible long after the initial post. UNICEF Bulgaria and the Ministry of Education now place online safety and digital-media competencies among the active areas of prevention.

Recognition matrix

Why might a child bully another child?

The 2020 article listed motives such as demonstrating power, jealousy, escaping personal problems or having experienced bullying themselves. These factors may occur in individual cases, but they should not be treated as a universal explanation. Aggressive behaviour develops through an interaction of individual, family, peer-group, school and wider social factors. In some situations, group status and class norms may be more important than the personal motivation of a single student.

Teachers should therefore avoid psychological diagnoses or statements such as “this child is aggressive by nature”. The educational task is to stop the harmful behaviour, protect the child who has been targeted, establish the facts and involve the necessary specialists and institutional mechanisms. Work with the student who caused the harm is necessary, but it cannot come at the expense of the safety of the child who was targeted.

The SAFE-7 framework: a practical first-response model

For practical orientation, Creativity Ltd. proposes the SAFE-7 framework, translated and adapted from the Bulgarian “СИГУРНО” model used in the source article. It is an editorial working framework and does not replace the official Bulgarian Ministry of Education mechanism, a school’s internal procedures or any legal reporting obligations.

S — Stop the immediate risk. If a child is in danger, safety comes first. A — Assess what happened. Distinguish conflict, violence, bullying and cyberbullying; speak with the students separately when necessary. F — Fortify safety and support. The child should know who they can approach and what will happen after the report.

E — Escalate through the established procedure. Follow the school’s internal process, leadership structure and applicable institutional mechanism. R — Record and document. Facts, actions and next steps should be traceable; in cyberbullying cases, digital evidence may also matter. R — Refer to appropriate support. Depending on the situation, a school psychologist, counsellor, parents and competent services may need to be involved. E — Evaluate and follow up. The intervention does not end with the first conversation — check whether the behaviour has stopped and whether the child feels safe.

What does the Bulgarian school framework require?

The Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science treats counteracting bullying and violence as a whole-school institutional policy. The official mechanism frames prevention and intervention as part of building a positive organizational climate, supporting personal development and strengthening the school community. It assigns responsibilities to school leadership, teaching and non-teaching staff, parents and students.

The mechanism also distinguishes situations by severity, requires documentation for particular cases and sets procedures for managing information. This is why serious or repeated incidents should not depend solely on an individual teacher’s intuition. School teams need to know their own internal rules and the current procedures, and when a child is at risk they must follow the applicable reporting obligations.

Prevention is more than one lesson about aggression

Effective prevention is built through school culture. The Bulgarian mechanism includes work on rights and responsibilities, empathy, tolerance, respect for differences, non-violent communication and conflict resolution. The Steps Together programme, developed with the participation of the Ministry of Education and UNICEF Bulgaria, also uses a whole-school approach and develops social-emotional competencies, participation, support and shared responsibility.

This also changes the role of bystanders. In bullying, the group is often part of the dynamic — through laughter, encouragement, silence or sharing content. Working only with two students may therefore be insufficient. The class needs clear rules about what to do when someone is humiliated, excluded or attacked online.

Cyberbullying is now part of core school-safety policy

In 2025, UNICEF Bulgaria and the Ministry of Education expanded their work on online safety and digital-media competence. The change is logical: the boundary between “school” and “the internet” is porous for students. A photo taken during a school break can become humiliating content later that evening, while a conflict from a group chat can enter the classroom the next morning.

The practical principle is not to argue over whether a case is “online” or “offline”, but to assess the risk to the child, the connection to the school community and the actions required. In online attacks, harmful content should not be forwarded unnecessarily; where appropriate, relevant evidence should be preserved and support should be sought through established channels.

When should a teacher seek additional help?

When there is physical danger, serious threats, sexualized violence, systematic humiliation, extortion, indications of self-harm or another high-risk factor, the situation should not remain at the level of an informal conversation. The same applies when the behaviour continues despite previous measures. Teachers are an important part of early recognition, but they should not be expected to manage complex cases alone.

In an immediate emergency, use the appropriate emergency and child-protection procedures. UNICEF Bulgaria also identifies the National Child Helpline 116 111 as a support channel. For a specific school case, the decisive framework remains the school’s internal procedure, school leadership, school specialists and the competent authorities.