Facing up to cyber bullies

The Full House Theatre Company performed a play and put on a workshop for youngsters at Edward Peake Middle School in Biggleswade.

The theatre company – which visits schools across Chronicle Country to educate students on bullying and personal safety issues – spent the afternoon at the Potton Road school on Thursday last week (February 9).

Four actors from Full House put on a play for Year 8 students about a girl who is bullied at school.

Her lifelong friend is faced with a difficult decision as to whether he should risk losing his own popularity at school by sticking up for her.

They followed this up with a 45-minute workshop about the dangers of cyber bullying.

Ben Miles, a Full House artistic director who helped to co-ordinate the play and workshop said: “Cyber bullying has become more of a problem as time has gone on.

“With previous generations if you were being bullied you might have been worried about going to school the next day but at home you were safe.

“But in the modern era of Facebook, Twitter and mobile phones bullies can strike on a 24/7 basis.”

The workshop focussed on the importance of using Facebook and other social networking sites responsibly.

Ben added: “We talked about Facebook and how many friends everyone had on their Facebook account.

“We were genuinely surprised that some had three or four hundred people, and we talked about how vital it is to only be friends with people you would be friends with in the outside world too.”