years this month after being sentenced to 3 years in jail, corruption the and coming up next, our magazine close up takes a look at bullying in spain, schools, stager for that coming up after a short break or find us online. d. w dot com. i'm clear, richardson, many thanks for watching the sky there. you see. so i thought i'd say what? the

walking down the hallway at school used to feel brian, here with dread. today he visit schools voluntarily. but for 12 years school was a living nightmare. was done by the end of the year. they looked for any reason to hurt. you said it would be seek, it might be the way you look. you know how clever you are off with your clothes or your tastes and i'll give you stuff. there can be a 1000 reasons. so i needed to know what none of them should be a reason for bullying and at school. a lot of schools are meant to be a safe place for children where they can receive an education grow in their personal development and learn to interact with others. but when children are excluded and bullied, their lives can become miserable. according to the united nations, one and 3 children experience, some form of bullying is often leaving lifelong scars the

brain. he now works as a volunteer giving workshops designed to prevent bullying. most of them are in spain of it, but today he's out of school in the tiny, neighboring country of in dora by means that as i'm going to tell you about my book that i've published and it's called beaten, but not defeated. joseph weeks ago, i experience bullying at school, but i was just don't know because i sort of have the 3 parties and it's not the victim and the rest of it then we had with the observer. this became a head. i saw the upset by the looks of whether the observer causes just as much damage as the aggressor. i would say even more. and yeah, because they're just looking on and not getting help. i part of the part from the

observer. who do you think needs the most self confidence? depicted? i mean the, the victim by okay. why what, okay. why what, okay. or not. because we shouldn't let things other people say a think this. so of course they can hurt is inc, i suppose that mostly because you have to develop a sense of self worth and incidence like that culture click it, does people call us names? it needs to go in one ear and out the other thing. what's your name? jody. do you agree with jody? by me right. brian is 23 years old and lives 30 minutes from barcelona. he spent most of his childhood here, including 4 years at a local school. can either on the, on the for a long time i just thought bullying was normal. you know,

that goes to quincy. if you experience it for a long enough, if you start to believe everything they say about, you know, the thing, it took me a long time, for example, to be able to look my girlfriend and the i so forth. and then there was the terrible fear of the social situation. a lot up isn't that the fear of giving a presentation and appearing in front of lots of people in different places. i panicked at the clock that someone might make eye contact with me on that we spoke on the every day. he's still walks past his old school. his memories of that time are extremely painful. the 1st time you look for can see the movie. i never knew the reason why they leave me

alone. he will get all they wanted was to give me a hard time because of my hope because of the way i looked. yeah for this. ok, that's why they singled me out together that i can assist in my last years here at this school were physically was difficult for none of those. my support this i know facing comments documented on that, they threw me down the stairs. they rammed dependent to my handle and then into my natural enough money. so who's coming? they don't use it right there in that building said the sink and the gymnasium. confusing. he, i remember they surrounded me so i couldn't get away any, any more people. this how do you ask me about that image is still fresh in my mind . nothing when we slide it in, we 1st come to my memories of this place are terrible. brain was born with strip business, where the eyes don't properly aligned. it's since been corrected at the harm he suffered as a result of the boeing still affects him today because there are people who unconsciously react and looked behind them as they passed by me was disconnected, really hurts because i know they've noticed something going on with my eye and that

has an effect event where someone sees him brian change schools 3 times, but the bullying never stopped. he got support from close friends and his parents, but not from the school itself. never luckett elite daughter to stop the bullying. the director of one of my schools advise me just to get back to defend myself. we see that the focus wasn't on talking about it. when he gets of the situation, he favored more aggression. be over talking, love you nancy. i'm in the, the, the lovely brian saw powerless and alone played by soft out and he assumed she was somehow to blame. a typical response. i can, well, you don't see deal them. they may be thought, why go to a place where they be, be up and say to me and threatened me, but i don't know, it just didn't make sense. fun with it is 300, that kind of psychological stress. you end up thinking. i ended up thinking that the best thing would be for me to take my own life,

send me that many of the foundation bullying seen from terrace or bullying without borders. estimates $1.00 and $4.00 children are harassed at school, and cyber bullying continues outside of school. to the group says bullying kills 200000 children and teenagers worldwide. each year. the 2 years ago, jose manuel lopez and maria jose lopez, last fair daughter kira they're convinced that it was bullying at school that drove their daughter to her to the well, if you don't get over that, you can't work through the death of your child. it's in comprehensible the more i don't know if you will react differently to me, the photos the like is that i can now breathing. and i looked at

a photo and it takes me back, allowing me to relieve those moments those. i remember how sexy we would see the we was so lucky to have a door. so i'd like to know what the this is, this is my daughter q as room to be will is i'd say hello to her every day in the morning and evening. if we buy cookies or other things that she liked,

we put them here for her. so you still are going, this is her nicholas. or she wasn't wearing it and all the photos. and because she didn't fit in at school, because now she fits into a small and that's how it is. my beautiful daughter is no more no 70 pace. sometimes i speak about her in the present tense, sometimes in the past. so she's still there. if i had to choose between my life now and never having had keira, i would still have chosen to have had keira on may 19th, 2021. kiera took her own life. they found her in the stairwell. she was

15 years old. okay. yeah. let's see now. let's see, i think she was trying to protect us at the end that took the 102 way of doing that was not to tell us everything that was happening to be able to, i guess, to see if she could cope with it. so i think something must have happened on that final day. can you never know what it was good for a better time schedule when she just couldn't bear it any longer in oklahoma? no, they blamed here a school clay here, padre amount of ed in barcelona. where they say she suffered severe bullying. as parents, they contacted the teachers repeatedly, asking them to put a stop to the bullying. back in 2019, they sent this letter to the school detailing years of suffering. they say right from early childhood, she was called names and left out she suffered both psychological and physical

abuse, splendid literacy. and the last 2 months when they told her she would die next week, delayed the idea when they pushed her down the stairs. when the levia, when they pass off the pony child and all who in the classroom in the data, and when they destroyed her school bags, called her names and loss to every day of the spain, schools are required to record all cases of bullying. there is a fixed procedure for when and how schools are required to act. and when bullies have to be reported. here as parents say, like many, they underestimated how quickly bullying can escalate. basic years time here was marked by systematic oppression and exclusion. enabling the school will not be was absolute. health required procedure was not as he had to. i don't understand his failure procedure, they say changing schools wasn't an option for kara. then during the pandemic,

the classes were divided up into groups, and kara was separated from her friends. they asked if their daughter could switch groups, but say the school rejected the request. and obviously they told kiera that she was the problem because they tell us is that again and again, she was the one that needed to learn to integrate into the cloths. kira died believing that she didn't fit in because that's what she was told at school. every time we complained about bidding jose willis and she said good bye to have friends who she was very fond of you. she wasn't a lonely child, but they convinced her she was even though that wasn't a problem. for a teenager, that's a terrible thing. so, but i'm not listen this w 9 days after here is death, an e mail appeared in the school app on her phone. it was sent from a computer at her school. the subject line was death. the message di, i've seen other than the and the police found out it was a student from her class,

but the boy just said he sent the email by mistake for you. i wrote you personally, i don't believe that we don't have any was actually a research suggested that it was a kind of bullying that continues even after to the school denies all wrong doing in tears case, they say there is no evidence she was bullied and therefore no connection between events that happened at the school and her decision to commit suicide. curious case shock to the country in her local area, graffiti and posters, so serve as a constant reminder. the scene has a bullying problem, the worst and all of europe, according to the group bullying without borders. akira school still more cases have been reported. maria, jose lopez is on the way to see her neighbor, carmen. yep. s. she's opened a new boutique in the area. maria wants to find out how carmen's daughter is doing

. she goes to the same school as kira and was reportedly also bullied. herman keeps precise records of every thing her daughter has experienced at school writing e mails, keeping a diary and notes and she's reported it to the authorities for this one. and this, these, all of these these are reports of panic attack. so, and these are all the emails that i found, the see that so if there's somebody else can make it out here, i wrote down every day with this something bad happens c o with and nothing happened. all the bullying experience by her daughter was apparently so bad. carmen reported the perpetrator to the police even though he's a minor. so like other parents, she says the atmosphere in the school promotes rivalry, and bullying is accept them and it's exactly the same. putting the same story, 2 bedrooms get so they tell the school about the physical and psychological abuse

that the daughter is suffering in. the school just denies that to be sick. a says the door was the problem and they refused to do anything about as he not because i don't know, i knew the cult cordell's. carmen appealed directly to the education authority that up to the pressure on the school. and the case was beneficially documented since then things have ease somewhat, but the experience has left her daughter suffering from depression and, and eating disorder. she's receiving psychological treatment. after the death of their daughter, kira all jose manuel and maria jose could do was filed a lawsuit in the criminal proceedings that followed they in the birth luna, city council appeared as joint plaintiffs. but in the trial, the district court ruled, but it couldn't be established beyond doubt that the school either as an institution or individuals at the school, drove kira to commit suicide. the case was discontinued and then in october

2022 here, his parents appealed against that decision and the case was passed to the regional court. but just sitting around and waiting was too difficult. instead, jose manuel began working to protect other families from the same fate. to join forces with the parents of children who have been bullied to try to establish an anti bullying law that provides better protection for children. they collected 230000 signatures and met with the spanish education minister, but twice as many signatures are needed to initiate legislation. the my daughter has died of my major a promise, and i owe it to her to keep that promise. i won't give up, not till we're done until justice is done. the funny way i have to keep going. it's what's keeping me alive. yes, i owe her that sort of liver. to the way he's

planning to take part in a demonstration, calling for a nationwide anti bullying law. one of the organizers is bryant, who he's arranged to meet the fellow there. how are you a good that? hi. how are you? read us relocate. are the ones who are not a sorry, i wasn't specifically want to law against bullying and schools that weren't binding for the entire country. isn't it for you? or do we have to insist on that? and we will get the political leaders to listen to us. i know we can get this past, i'm confident of it. they want a set of rules for following up on cases that applies to every school and every part of speech. because the education system is failing so badly, we need to make sure these cases are seen and the action is taken. so it's unlimited, but we have a long flight ahead of us going through that more time. what's

the next step for brian is a school near barcelona. once again raising awareness of how serious bullying is. he's accompanied by the catalonia and police, as he gets booked for courses like this once or twice a week. his schools are prevention and understanding, both the victims and the perpetrators, our children. brian encourages the victims of bullying to speak out, but only 10 percent. dare to raise the alarm. see? yes, quite a bit. starting in the 4th grade, they started saying mean things to me. i am. so you see i have a problem and i have epilepsy. and they started saying things like, oh you poor thing, for example, for they started talking behind my back. it's been handled since a service,

you know, but it's still happened to providing adequate support for the children and combating bullying. works better in some schools than others. it's up to the school to create a climate where bullying can't take root their color. do you send em and goal in on dora books, brian regularly for workshops that they can't emphasize enough. how dangerous bullying can be because excuse given is wanting from bullying is very bad . but the, the shoulder need more time than adults to with through is when somebody sometimes guides remains. i gotta simply call him after christmas and make sure that nobody that helps school ever suffers from this corner. but don't mean that you're not going to want to friend a classmates. let me go and do you need to be really, really, really observant?

maria joseph pascal is convinced the workshops are having a positive effect. she's been running the school for 3 years now. she has 20 years of experience as a teacher and psychologist, she says that bullying exists in every school and that it's important to put a stop to it right from the start. because once it takes root, it's almost impossible to stop. no separate because all basic approach is to ensure that the students, teachers, and other stuff a paying attention for every incident that arouses suspicion has to be put on record and most, we also do our best to teach empathy. we cancel out any student to you to be treated badly. no, nope. i say my she says that every school has critical areas that are difficult to monitor like locker rooms, bathrooms and stairwells. so calls are growing in spain

for more video surveillance and schools to better protect children. like many schools, this one has installed cameras for the outside, but they're not currently authorized. endorse this is less our cameras need to be the students and the teachers themselves, enough and the she wants the school to be a respectful environment that strengthens children's social skills. a place that teaches every child to celebrate their uniqueness. rather than being ashamed of it, [000:00:00;00] the meanwhile, jose manuel lopez is on his way to

a meeting with his lawyer. the regional court has rejected their appeal. they need to discuss what to do next. the, their lawyer, powell and our bona is not giving up. legally, their only option now is to pursue a civil case but cannot know this notion of hard evidence to pin it down. nothing affects to preschool, bullying for criminal cases at a sample for school. i don't even been a that they've waited more than 18 months for our court ruling. the new trial could take up to 2 more years. to put the meetings, if you can, we demand compensation here. my wants to maximum, but i mean, not for myself. see if we win anything i'll donate to charity the ultimately the children aren't to blame either. they're just the children or somebody. someone needs to be accountable for the mistakes that were made. it because after

everything that happened to my daughter is dead, and that has to have consequences. here. legal expert jordy, neeve of renewal has followed care his case from the start. he says, bullying is always difficult to prove in a criminal case and believes civil proceedings have a greater chance of success. and on the, on the, for the civil case, all the parents can expect this money. nothing more. because there's a window, of course that's not just us, but at least it's something solid going on. and perhaps more importantly, that can cause the school to take better measures in the future to prevent such things from happening with what is provided that the school is indeed found to bear responsibility 7, a west size perspective that supports he points out that cure his case has attracted nationwide interest. he believes that even though the criminal case has been discontinued for now, it will continue making waves. if so not really. it doesn't mean that something might not turn up in the future for the show, that's what

a court order to professional discontinuation the local otherwise, if it had been believe that nothing more could be found, the proceedings would have been closed definitively leave it in a letter sent to all parents, the school presented the situation somewhat differently. it said the proceedings were concluded. and so it was x that i knew that story and start a letter from the school states that the investigations have been permanently concluded to go through this kind. it's not true, the court said exactly the opposite has probably seen the whole state here. the version for trade by the school was also spread by parts of the spanish media. in may 2023. it was time for the protest. around 350 people march through barcelona . among the men who had lost or almost lost a child, at least 4 grandson. they marched together with brian, he met and jose manuel a little password to the seat of the catalan government,

where they delivered their message to the education minister. is to come by and look at the photos. this can't be allowed to continue. if you're not capable of doing anything make way for someone who is their pain has turned to anger, the regional school authority is remaining silent. unwilling to reveal if the bullying protocol applies to cure his case. the general director responsible for the area on a cheat feebler is remaining tight lipped, claiming the criminal cases on going, even though its been provisionally discontinued. because i told them before this case is under the criminal investigation. so we can't discuss any details. the authority is also said to have investigated the case and found the school was not in any way responsible for care and stuff. jose manuel and maria jose miss kira,

every day they feel they've been left to fight on their own. they no longer expect any support, not from the regional school authority and certainly not from the school itself. brian says only when government and society gets serious about tackling bullying well, he's stopped fighting. he believes there's still a long way to go. something he regularly discusses and his hometown radio station without. hi, how's it going? let's get started. the, it's a lot to me is that the most important thing to me is to encourage victims of bullying not to keep quiet, get people to reach out for helping them get it. okay. because what most often kills is the staying silent. and then that's the hiding and feeling small. i think it's up on it's enough for you know, the contents, what gradually shuts you down and consumes you. ok? i said i want to ask your dad and then to your mom, your teacher. i can for other people for the help that you need and that's what i mean. that is how you like it to him. if he does in

a similar course or the, it's the 1st warm evening of the year and the beaches are filling up in barcelona lopez family came here often walking along the b together. degree for their daughter. kira comes and goes. the nature of their grease might change, but it never goes away. they hold on to precious memories like these, the multiple she had such a love to the beach,

young one. as soon as the 1st ray of sunshine appeared, and the 1st thing she wants to do since she was this in the morning, was to get her feet would get off the beach was a source of joy for her. and summer was the time she enjoyed it. the most they choose kira here is parents can't just remain still, they support each other. electronic the tv is launching a civil proceedings is the right way to go on the right way to hold the school. the parents of bullies and the authorities to account of i know we will not let this go . so if you want to see they need to pay for the damage. we don't want to just assume because have a, my daughter's death cannot have been insane. but it me kind of way to get out of my list here is never, far from their minds. her death has shaken many in spain and drawing attention to

a previously unseen danger. how bullying can destroy lives, the, or the, what i have to say there's to us the that's why listen to their stories. the reporter, every weekend on d w,

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