Several schools are revisiting their anti-bullying policies and speaking to children about values in light of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

One school has put up, in its junior section, “no violence” posters with the names of the people students should approach if bullied by their peers.

Another school has formed an anti-bullying squad made up of students, which has planned to deny certain privileges to the students who are repeat offenders.

A third school is explaining to the students the meaning and relevance of ideas such as “independence”, “justice” and “responsibility” through real-life examples.

“Bullying is a nascent form of violence and it violates the concept of boundaries,” said Nupur Ghosh, vice-principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.

Bullying, which takes on various forms such as body shaming, name-calling and stalking (both real and virtual) and which often leads to violence, is not uncommon in schools.

At times the lines between in-person bullying and cyberbullying get blurred and what starts in school continues online and the other way around.

“We have always told our students to report bullying verbally, but now (following the RG Kar horror) we have put up posters in classrooms in the junior section with the names of the people they (the harassed students) can report to,” Ghosh said.

Some of the messages on the posters are “Kindness is cool, but violence is not” and “Stand up, speak out, say no to violence”.

At South City International School, an anti-bullying squad consisting of students is going to classrooms and explaining to the students why bullying is unacceptable.

The school has also put up posters on the kinds of bullying such as “homophobic bullying” (making derogatory remarks about someone’s sexual orientation, excluding someone based on their sexual orientation), “racial bullying” (mocking someone’s accent or appearance), “emotional bullying” (actions that harm someone’s self-esteem or emotional well-being), “sexual bullying” (making sexual comments or gestures, touching someone inappropriately), “social bullying” (damaging someone’s social relationships).

The anti-bullying squad has formulated a plan to bar repeat offenders from participating in co-curricular activities and representing the school in various events.

“Bullying has to be nipped in the bud because one who is bullied becomes a bully later. We have to talk to students at the school level, not just to address and curb instances of bullying while they are still students but to prevent them from becoming perpetrators later in their lives,” said Satabdi Bhattacharjee, principal, South City International School.