Dianne - It does sound like a breach of that clause and you do have a point there. If you can, seek legal advice on how to approach it with the court.

This is probably a bit off topic, but ignoring a bully doesn't always stop them and bullying comes in different forms. Bullying that is overt is easy to identify and easy to ignore, but there are other forms of bullying that are more difficult to ignore because they can't be quantified and leave you wondering if what is happening is real. This kind of bullying is much more common in the workplace but it is a valid form of bullying none the less and it is terrible because it messes with your head. It is the subtle put downs in front of work colleagues, being left off group emails, not being invited to crucial meetings, being stripped of duties or even set up to fail - all of which leave the person feeling like they are incompetent and wondering if they are underperforming. The answer may seem simple - to just get out, but because it happens slowly over time, and because it is so hard to identify what is going on, it messes with your self esteem and leaves you feeling like a failure. This form of bullying also makes you look bad in the eyes of other people, which is really hard to ignore when it is people that you are accountable to. I think that a certain element of it does also take place in schools. It is fair more sophisticated than the playground push and shove and name calling, it is psychological bullying and it messes with your self esteem. It takes a pretty strong person to not only identify that it is happening, but to come through it unscathed.

I do think kids need to learn resilience and that there are some things they can ignore, but I also think that all kids are entitled to go to school without fear. They are entitled to go each day knowing that they will be safe and that they are not going to be targetted. Ignoring is not a great strategy because even if they leave you alone, a bully will find another target and the issue has never really been dealt with. Schools need to be safe places and there is a place for identifying bullies and targetting their behaviour. That is only done through kids speaking up and saying it isn't okay.

Having said all that, I think that internet friendships with bullies are not a good idea but I think this is where the more psychological forms of bulling come into it. I don't think teenagers always have the capacity to identify what is going on and as I said earlier, it can be really hard to quanitify some of these behaviours if they aren't overt. If they are lowering other's opinions of you, then it is a form of bullying and it is not okay. I think as much as possible, try not to read stuff that others publish about you, but it does affect other people when they start to see you differently and treat you differently. Not all of those people will be bullying you, but it can mess with your self esteem and it is very dangerous. If bullying was always overtly violent, it would be much easier for people to identify it and the police could lay charges. This is all fairly new ground and there is some research going into it to try and help the laws keep up with the changing trends. They are recognising more and more that there is a lot more to bullying than most people think.