Bullying: Who does the law punish?
The suicide of Diego, an eleven-year-old boy, precipitated from a window in a school in Madrid, reopens the social debate on the effectiveness of measures against bullying. At present, 1 out of every 4 children is attacked in the classrooms, according to the Study of School Violence and Harassment in Spain, and 25 percent of the children in the school suffer degrading treatment from their peers. But, in these cases, when the person involved is a minor in the Bullying: Who does the law punish?
Strategic Plan of School Coexistence
The Strategic Plan for School Coexistence is the reference text for bullying, which was presented by the Ministry of Education last January. It has a preventive focus and affects the training of teachers and parents for the detection of inappropriate behaviors in the school environment related to bullying. Likewise, the plan includes measures for the bullies and their families, in an attempt to uncover the root of these antisocial behaviors.
A free telephone completes this protocol, which different associations of parents of students, including the Association Against School Harassment, consider "insufficient".
The legal vacuum of bullying
The harasser has no criminal liability until he is 14 years old. "The knot of the conflict, explains José Carlos Avendaño, lawyer of the firm Le Morne Brabant, is the impossibility of criminally punishing the harasser, as it is a minor and there is no repressive legislation against him. up to 14 years of age who are totally exempt from any type of responsibility, given that the law of the minor applies to minors between 14 and 18 years of age ".
Nor is there any specific article related to bullying within the penal code and the figure is reflected in the 173 that regulates the behavior against moral integrity and punishes with a penalty of between six months to two years in prison to "He who inflicted another person degrading treatment, seriously undermining their moral integrity * "
Bullying, who responds to justice?
José Carlos Avendaño affirms that "both the center and the parents, the harassed and harassed, the teachers and the tutors, could be accused of the crime of omission of aid for not activating the protocol against the harassment of the school in question". Adults are ultimately responsible for minors, and as José Carlos Avendaño points out, "they have the obligation to supervise them in the family and school environment".
Protection of the image of the harassed and the harasser
The stalker, being another minor, in full psychosocial development, must be protected, since it is susceptible to change their behavior. Nor has it reached emotional maturity, so it is also, for legal purposes, a figure to protect.
The bullied is also in the same situation, with the aggravation of having been harassed and subjected to a situation of shame and stress. Therefore, the image of one and the other should be protected.
Carmen de Blas
Advice: José Carlos Avendaño. Lawyer of Le Morne Brabant
More information: Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism. Government of Spain. INTECO Action guide against cyberbullying
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