Schools In Rome Research Articles

SINcerely Yours

Ferguson continuedfrom previous page Daughter mine, listen to the waves, and dance, daughter mine, dance! In contrast is the starkly literal Biagini's: Le stelle danzano la loro luce Il cielo notturno rabbrividisce. Ascoltando le onde, danza, figlia mia! — which hews strictly to Gioseffi's essence. Of particular note is the word rabbrividisce, which indeed means "shivers." Yet rabbrividisce would better be used to enhance the conveyance of a very difficult moment, it rumbles and slides so. So when then does meaning trump beauty? The answer: Whenever the author says. The dovetailing of Gioseffi's work is splendid . She keeps well to her views and conveys them consistently through the book's three sections. She never lets us forget that the real world is looming and that mystic Nature is the original wellspring of life. "Vases of Wombs" and "The Sea Hag and the Cave of Sleep," which takes us on a journey á la James Joyce (but without his spelling), intertwine well to initiate us into her vision. Yet she has already tempered this view in the first stanza of the first poem, "Music Is a Child of the Grass": "We live in the shadows of immense hands / like death that will take our sex away." When we arrive at "Some Slippery Afternoon," we find Gioseffi's communiqués change somewhat. They become directed more to the world at large, to more of her relatives, and more to the reader. The material is harsher, and generally less sensual. It is also where we are most fully shown that what is anathema to Gioseffi is mankind, which makes this section a hard read. Yet, like a skipping stone, she reminds us from time to time of her views of the true context of life. That the ways of Nature, for her, are the balm and surcease for the abundant cruelties of the world we are bom into, and which shape our own natures into something less than we would like for them to be. / sense a lost andprimitive priestess wandering in a walled city ofthe wrong century. In the end, we are allowed to meet the Gioseffi of today. Her self-image is now drawn in "Old Aphrodite Rises from Her Porcelain Tub," where we are shown how she has been completely wrought into the world and now deals with the fact that she is afraid of falling alone in her bathroom where no one would hear her— and yet still must live with man's devastations: and land mines are set to blow off legs of children running after butterflies in meadows. This third section is aptly called "Blood Autumn and the Peach." Aptly, because blood autumn speaks to ends, while a peach is a fruit that holds thé seed to be planted for the next life. And with a fine touch, she closes with "Orta Nova, Provincia di Puglia" ("New Orchard, Province of Puglia"), where her father was born. Where better to leave the seed for the next life? Perhaps since the world is such a mixed bag, we may be able to understand why Blood Autumn is such a mixed bag. From time to time the world comes straight at us. Other times, it makes no sense, and, on occasion, it reaches out to us with delicious subtlety. "This is what I am," the world says, and "This is my nature." Without excuse, artifice, or pretense, Gioseffi unveils her self to us and says the same. John Ferguson is a graduate ofthe American School in Rome and wrote this piece in Reggio, Italy. SINcerely Yours LindaAnn Loschiavo Mae West: It Ain't No Sin Simon Louvish Thomas Dunne Books http://www.thomasdunnebooks.com 512 pages; cloth, $26.95 America's vaudevillians and silent screen stars have found a voice across the Atlantic. Filmmaker Simon Louvish, an Israeli-Scot who lives in England, has penned sci-fi novels as well as four biographies ofclassic funnymen: W. C. Fields (Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times ofW. C. Fields [1997]), the Marx Brothers (Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers [ 1 999]), Laurel and Hardy (Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life...

From phonological recoding to lexical reading: A longitudinal study on reading development in Italian

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgment This research was supported by a grant from the Italian Ministry for Universities, Education, and Research (MIUR) to M. Orsolini (Cofin 2002). We thank Pierluigi Zoccolotti and Cristina Burani for their helpful comments. The authors are grateful to the teachers, staff, and the children of the primary school in Rome who participated in the research project. Additional informationNotes on contributorsMargherita OrsoliniCorrespondence should be addressed to Margherita Orsolini, Dipartimento di Psicologia dei Processi di Sviluppo e Socializzazione, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Roma, Italy. margherita.orsolini@uniroma1.it

Twenty years of biophysics of photosynthesis in Padova, Italy (1984–2005): A tale of two brothers

This paper tells the history of two brothers, almost a generation apart in age, who met again, after having followed different academic paths, to introduce biophysical research in photosynthesis at the University of Padova. The development of two research groups, one in the Chemistry Department, the other in the Biology Department led to a comprehensive interdisciplinary group across academic barriers. The group of Giovanni Giacometti developed in Physical Chemistry, during the years before his retirement, with some roots which can be traced to the famous Linus Pauling school of the mid 1950s, and made possible, by the work of many students (especially Donatella Carbonera and Marilena Di Valentin) and of an older associate (Giancarlo Agostini). The group participated quite actively with a number of European and American laboratories in the application of physical techniques, especially Electron Spin Resonance (EPR) associated with Optical Spectroscopy (Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance; ODMR), and contributed to the development of the understanding of the structure-function relationships in photosynthetic membrane complexes, stimulated by the determination of the X-ray structure of the purple photosynthetic reaction center in the mid 1980s ( J. Deisenhofer, H. Michel, R. Huber and others). The younger brother of Giovanni, Giorgio Mario Giacometti, came to Padova after obtaining biochemical knowledge from the Rossi-Fanelli school in Rome, where Jeffries Wyman, Eraldo Antonini and Maurizio Brunori were the world masters of hemoglobin research. In Padova, together with a group of young scientists (at first Roberto Bassi and Roberto Barbato, now leaders of their own groups in Verona and in Alessandria respectively, followed soon by brilliant coworkers such as Fernanda Rigoni, Elisabetta Bergantino and more recently Ildikò Szabò and Paola Costantini), Giorgio approached more biochemical themes of oxygenic photosynthesis, such as purification and characterization of antenna chlorophyll-protein complexes, Photosystem II (PS II) particles and subunits, having always in mind structural and molecular problems at the level of the largest integrated particles, which are more difficult to investigate in detail by the spectroscopic techniques.

Is peer education the best approach for HIV prevention in schools? Findings from a randomized controlled trial

Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness of peer education when compared to teacher-led curricula in AIDS prevention programs conducted in schools in Rome, Italy. Methods Eighteen high schools were randomly assigned to one of two prevention programs: one led by teachers and the other by peer leaders. A sample of students attending the last 2 years (n = 1295) completed pre and post-intervention questionnaires. Changes in sexual behaviors, knowledge, prevention skills, risk perception and attitudes were first evaluated within each intervention group. Afterwards, changes in knowledge, prevention skills, risk perception, and attitudes total scale scores (post-test scores minus pre-test scores) were compared between the two groups, through linear regression models, in order to control for confounders, taking into account the within-school correlation in score changes. As for sexual behaviors, number of sexual partners and frequency of condom use in the 3 months before post-test were compared by intervention group through ordinal regression models, also taking into account behaviors reported before pre-test. Results For both groups, we observed significant improvements in skills, knowledge, attitudes and risk perception. The peer-led group showed a 6.7% (95% C.I. 1.9–11.5) scores greater improvement in knowledge, compared to the teacher-led group. In neither group were improvements observed in condom use or number of sexual partners. Conclusions The only apparent benefit of the peer-led intervention, compared to that led by teachers, was a greater improvement in knowledge of HIV. Neither of the interventions induced changes in sexual behavior. However, the role of possible biases and methodological problems must be considered when interpreting these results.

New schools design: Acoustics as main target

The effects of poor intelligibility and high background noise levels on the cognitive development of school children and on the dissatisfaction of teachers has been largely investigated. National standards have been implemented and attempts to harmonize these standards in international guidelines are ongoing. All these activities have led to the awareness that design of new schools must be centered on the achievement of a good acoustic environment. At this point a strong research effort to study and implement best solutions must be conducted, in collaboration, by architects, acousticians, pedagogues, psychologists, builders and acoustic materials producers. Recently an international competition for the planning of new primary schools in Rome, Italy has been announced. The aim of the competition is to study new architectural and running features of primary schools to obtain, among other parameters such as lighting, low cost energy solutions and air quality, the control of reverberation time, sound insulation and mechanical equipments noise. In these school buildings, as innovative requirement, children must be also able to elaborate interpretative hypothesis of physical phenomena such as sound emission and perception and be aware of their influence on these phenomena. Different possible solutions are presented.

US Physics Teachers Volunteer in AIDS-Ravaged Zambia

With a small grant and a good idea, a group of Virginia physics teachers is working in a remote area of Zambia to prevent physics education from becoming a victim of the AIDS pandemic.

Intracranial midline dermoid and epidermoid cysts in children.

Dermoid and epidermoid cysts are rare space-occupying lesions of the central nervous system. Although characterized by a slow growth rate, they are often associated with serious complications. Surgery is the only effective treatment, and radical resection of the entire cyst, whenever possible, generally succeeds in achieving a cure. Authors of large series have only occasionally reported on pediatric cases, and these reports often lack a specific analysis of those cerebral midline lesions. The authors report on the treatment of 19 patients (16 with intracranial intradural dermoid and three with epidermoid cysts located along the cerebral midline). All patients underwent surgery at the Catholic University Medical School in Rome. The patients ranged in age from 3 months to 16 years. Nine cysts were located in the posterior cranial fossa, six in the frontobasal subarachnoid spaces, two in the third ventricle, and two in the quadrigeminal plate cistern. In the cases presenting with dermal sinus tracts, attempts at resecting the dermoid cyst and the associated dermal sinus were made in a single stage to achieve an en bloc removal. In the cases without dermal sinus tracts, and in the three with epidermoid cysts, a standard craniotomy was performed to reach the lesion. There were no surgery-related deaths, and the morbidity rate was low. Total and subtotal resections were achieved in 15 and four cases, respectively; however, regrowth of the residual tumor was observed only in two of them. After repeated resection, tumor progression has not been observed. At a mean follow-up period of 92.7 months, excellent clinical results were achieved in 18 patients. Because surgery is the only effective treatment modality for these lesions, radical resection should be performed in all cases to avoid tumor recurrence; however, because the cyst capsule can adhere firmly to vital structures and attempts at its radical removal can be dangerous, subtotal resection may be a wise option in selected cases.

Subdural hygroma: an unwanted result of Sylvian arachnoid cyst marsupialization.

Subdural hygroma is a known complication of Sylvian fissure arachnoid cysts (SACs). However, most of the data in the literature refer to spontaneous or posttraumatic occurrence of subdural hygromas, regarded as either a favorable or an unfavorable event. Little is known about this phenomenon as a consequence of the surgical management of SACs. The present study was carried out to evaluate the significance of postoperative subdural hygromas in children with temporal arachnoid cysts, who have been treated with craniotomy and wide marsupialization of the cystic membrane. Between 1980 and March 2002, 104 children were operated on for a SAC at the Pediatric Neurosurgical Unit of the Catholic University Medical School in Rome. Six patients (5.8%; boys/girls=4/2; mean age 3.28 years) developed a subdural hygroma postoperatively, which required further treatment. According to Galassi's classification 4 children had a Type III cyst and 2 children a Type II cyst. All the patients had previously been submitted to open marsupialization of their arachnoid cyst and extensive removal of the cyst wall. In 5 patients (Type III cyst: 4 patients; Type II cyst: 1 patient), acute or subacute symptoms and signs of increased intracranial pressure (ICP) developed at a temporal distance, varying from 5 days to 1 month (mean interval: 14.3 days). All these children needed surgical treatment for the hygroma. A subduro-peritoneal (SDP) shunt was implanted as the first step in 3 patients (Type III cyst: 2 patients; Type II cyst: 1 patient). In the remaining 2 patients of this group (Type III cysts) medical therapy was initially attempted (acetazolamide: 24 mg/kg) without any improvement in clinical manifestations; on these grounds an external spinal subarachnoid drainage was implanted, but led only to the transient clearance of symptoms. The direct drainage of the subdural collection (SDP shunt in 1 patient and temporary external subdural drainage in the other), was followed by complete clinical recovery in both cases. The last patient in this series showed a pathologic increase in head circumference during the 1st month after surgery for his arachnoid cyst, followed by a subsequent stabilization. A CT scan documented a subdural hygroma, which first of all increased in size, but stabilized 2 months after surgery. No surgical treatment was performed in this case. At a mean follow-up of 2.38 years (minimum: 1 month; maximum: 5 years) all the patients are in excellent clinical conditions. Complete neuroradiological resolution of the hygroma was observed in 2 of the 4 shunted patients, who have both been submitted to shunt removal (2 and 3 years after the implant respectively). It is our opinion that a wide opening of the external membrane of SACs may predispose the CSF fluid to accumulate within the subdural space, where its absorption is insufficient. A ball mechanism created by CSF pulsation may further increase the subdural fluid accumulation. Secondary distortion and occlusion at the level of the basal cisterns may also contribute to the persistence of the subdural fluid collection. Clinical manifestations may be transient, but frequently have a progressive course and the drainage of the subdural collection is, though transient, required in most cases. On these grounds we suggest the selective opening of the basal cisterns associated with a limited resection of the outer cyst walls in order to limit CSF access to the subdural space.

Association of asthma with extra‐respiratory symptoms in schoolchildren: Two cross‐sectional studies 6 years apart

Epidemiological information on symptoms affecting extra-respiratory organs and apparatuses in asthmatic children is scarce. The aim of this study therefore was to evaluate, at a population level, if and what extra-respiratory symptoms are associated with asthma. Two questionnaire-based, cross-sectional surveys were carried out on 1,262 students (651 males; mean age 9.57 years, age-range 6-14 years) in 1992 and on 1,210 students (639 males; mean age 9.02 years, age-range 6-14 years) in 1998, from two elementary and two junior high schools in Rome, Italy. Questionnaires included queries about asthma and its risk factors and extra-respiratory symptoms (headache, restlessness, sleep disturbances, urticaria, itching, and abdominal pain). Of responders, 11.9% (279/2,342) had a history of asthma. After adjustment for gender, family history of atopic disease, low birth weight, early respiratory problems, and damp house, asthma was significantly associated with recurrent abdominal pain (odds ratio [OR] 1.90; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04, 3.16), itching (OR 3.15; 95% CI: 1.75, 5.68), and urticaria (OR 2.52; 95% CI: 1.02, 6.20). Asthma was reported by 10.2% (201/1,962) of children unaffected by this triad, by 20.1% (56/279; OR 2.20) with one of the symptoms, and by 31.6% (12/38; OR 4.04) with two or more symptoms. An emerging characteristic of pediatric asthma in our setting appears to be its association with certain extra-respiratory symptoms (abdominal pain, itching, and urticaria). A global, internistic approach to asthmatic children is increasingly required both in the clinical setting and in future epidemiological studies.

A Conversation with Franco Rasetti

Along with Enrico Fermi, Franco Rasetti played a key role in the rebirth of Italian physics in the 1920s and 1930s. In this interview he talks about his experiments at Caltech on the Raman effect in 1928–1929, mountain climbing, his passion for bugs, fossils, and flowers, and doing physics in Florence, Rome, Berlin-Dahlem, and Quebec. Rasetti also reminisces about the Rome school of mathematics and other scientists he has known and worked with in Europe and in North America, including Robert and Glenn Millikan, Lise Meitner, and O. M. Corbino.

Avaliação de metodologias na educação para os meios

The author discusses, based on a survey carried out among young people aged 11 to 14 in high schools in Rome, the difficulties there are in evaluating the results obtained with the application of methodologies of education for the media. Aiming at supplying researchers and teachers who are interested in the evaluation with conceptual bases for it, the author talks about the main approaches used in education for the media and, most especially, he characterizes the receptors based on the audience integrative theory that works with the subject on six dimensions: active, knowledgeable, mature, social, critical and creative. Finally, the author suggests a qualitative method using a questionnaire for interviews with teachers and students, as an instrument to evaluate the content that is worked with in education for the media.

The Invention of Jane Harrison

Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) is the most famous female classicist in history, the author of books that revolutionised our understanding of Greek culture and religion. star in the British academic world, she became the quintessential Cambridge woman - as Virginia Woolf suggested when, in A Room of One's Own, she claims to have glimpsed Harrison's ghost in the college gardens. This innovative portrayal of a fascinating woman raises the question of who wins (and how) in the competition for academic fame. Mary Beard captures Harrison's ability to create her own image. and she contrasts her story with that of Eugene Sellers Strong, a younger contemporary and onetime intimate, the author of major work on Roman art and once a glittering figure at the British School in Rome - but who lost the race for renown. The setting for the story of Harrison's career is classical scholarship in this period - its internal arguments and allegiances and especially the of the anthropological strain most strikingly exemplified by Sir James Frazer. Questioning the common criteria for identifying intellectual influence and movements, Beard exposes the mythology that is embedded in the history of classics. At the same time she provides a vivid picture of a sparkling intellectual scene.

A Macroseismic Network of Schools for the Collection of Earthquake Effects in a Large City

The link between education and scientific activities is crucial for a correct approach to outreach of natural hazards information. Schools are the ideal laboratory to experiment with combining these activities. The aim of the program presented here was to involve high schools in the data collection of earthquake effects, providing to the students targets of observation and instruments to perform this research. In order to obtain a realistic picture of the distribution of earthquake effects in large urban areas, we needed as many intensity points as possible, spread over the whole city area. Two high-density macroseismic surveys were performed, for the first time, to evaluate the intensity of shaking in the city of Rome (Italy) during the September 1997–March 1998 Umbria-Marche (Italy) seismic sequence. To accomplish this objective a cooperative project among Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica (ING), University of Roma Tre, and many Roman high schools was created, joining scientific results and a didactic approach to earthquake preparedness using limited manpower and money. We involved in the macroseismic survey the 14–19-year-old students of a network of high schools in Rome, schools previously selected on the basis of their geographical distribution. This choice differentiates our experience from others, for example those developed in Japan (Kayano, 1990; Kayano et al., 1991) and Slovenia (Cecic, 1994). In those cases elementary and junior high schools were preferred (students aged 8–14 years). Another investigation of this type to get as many intensity data points as possible from individual households was performed by Dengler and Dewey (1998) in the form of a telephone survey within the felt region of a strong earthquake. From a scientific point of view our results gave a detailed definition of the distribution of individual intensity reports in Rome, information basic for site response analysis, especially in large urban areas. Besides …

No Respect, No Respect at All: Some Thoughts on Teaching History

Journal Article No Respect, No Respect at All: Some Thoughts on Teaching History Get access Gregory Kent Stanley, Gregory Kent Stanley Gregory Kent Stanley taught history at the University of Kentucky for eight years. He then enrolled in the teaching certification program at Berry and now teaches history at Rome High School in Rome, Georgia. Dr. Stanley is the author of numerous articles on history and education topics. He is also the author of two books, The Rise and Fall of the Sportswoman: Women's Health, Fitness, and Athletics, 1860–1940; and Before Big Blue: Sports at the University of Kentucky, 1880–1940. His novel, My House Wasn't on Stilts: Rites of Passage for a Displaced Appalachian is due out later this fall. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Lawrence A. Baines Lawrence A. Baines Lawrence A. Baines is the J. Leland Green Chair in Education at Berry College. As a high school English teacher, Baines was often assigned sections of world history, though the only academic preparation he had in college were two courses he took as part of the general education requirements. Baines's book Going Bohemian was recently published by the International Reading Association. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar OAH Magazine of History, Volume 15, Issue 1, Fall 2000, Pages 74–75, https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/15.1.74 Published: 01 September 2000

Repeatability of the ISAAC video questionnaire and its accuracy against a clinical diagnosis of asthma

The objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) video questionnaire in terms of repeatability and accuracy against a clinical diagnosis of asthma achieved according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) algorithm.Two hundred and forty-one subjects, aged 13–14 years from two secondary schools in Rome, Italy, were enrolled. Video and written ISAAC questionnaires were completed twice, 3 months apart, by 194 and 190 adolescents, respectively. Two months later, 106 subjects were visited by two physicians blinded to the results of questionnaires.Sixteen subjects were classified as having clinical asthma (CA) at the clinical visit, and eight of them as having clinical active asthma (CAA) on the basis of at least one positive outcome of the NHLBI algorithm. The repeatability of video questionnaire was similar to that of the written questionnaire for items on exercise wheeze and nocturnal cough and, to a lesser degree, for items concerning any wheeze in the past. The video questionnaire showed a worse performance than the written questionnaire for items on asthma attack: K-value (95% CL)=0·59 (0·37–0·80) for video scene no. 5 and K-value (95% CL)=0·86 (0·74–0·98) for written question no. 6. The overall accuracy of the video questionnaire, estimated as a positive answer to any video scene, was lower in terms of sensitivity than that of any written question when CA was used as a gold standard (0·50 vs. 0·81, P=0·025) and increased with respect to CAA (0·75vs. 0·87, P=0·317). The specificity of any video scene was better than that of any written question, independently from the gold standard used.In conclusion, the video questionnaire showed a fairly good accuracy, although slightly lower than that of the written questionnaire and provided sufficiently reliable results. However, samples of subjects from different geographic areas and cultures should be studied in order to conclusively define the performance of the ISAAC video questionnaire.

Sex education in secondary schools: an Italian experience

Purpose: To evaluate the impact on Italian teenagers’ knowledge and attitudes of an experimental program in sex education. Methods: The program consisted of five workshops in five public secondary schools in Rome. The impact of the program was evaluated with three questionnaires designed for this study. A pretest evaluated baseline knowledge, a posttest measured the gain in knowledge, and a third questionnaire estimated retention of information 4–6 months later. Three hundred seventy-six students attending secondary school participated in the program. Thirteen questions were selected for the analysis, and improvement was measured by the difference between pretest and posttest scores. Results: Ninety-six percent of the sample was in favor of sex education programs in schools. The students had an average 50% gain in the percentage of correct answers following the course. The mean score based on the number of correct answers to questions showed a baseline value of 5.00, a posttest value of 11.80, and a test value 4–6 months later of 10.7. Results showed students’ positive attitude toward school sex education courses, low baseline knowledge, and a good ability to learn. Conclusions: In Italy there is a need for collaboration between schools and local health services to promote knowledge and prevention in reproductive health among teenagers.

Bullies and delinquents: personal characteristics and parental styles

This research aimed to analyse the personal characteristics and parental styles of bullies and delinquents, and to establish which factors were related to the bully/delinquent group and which were related to only bullies or only delinquents. A self-report questionnaire on bullying and delinquency was completed by 113 girls and 125 boys aged 11–14 in a middle school in Rome. Bullying and delinquency were more common among boys than among girls. Bullying did not vary significantly with age, but delinquency increased with age. Bullying and delinquency were especially related for boys and for older students. Only bullies were younger, while only delinquents were older, suggesting that bullying might be an early stage on a developmental sequence leading to delinquency. Only bullies and only delinquents had different parenting correlates; only bullies had authoritarian parents and disagreed with their parents, whereas only delinquents had conflictual and low supportive parents. This suggested that bullying and delinquency are not merely different behavioural manifestations of the same underlying construct. Parent training interventions might prevent both bullying and delinquency. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Conversation with Hans Bethe

A Nobel laureate in physics speaks candidly about C. C. Lauritsen, Robert Millikan, and a number of other prominent physicists he has known and worked with at Cornell University, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of Rome. Bethe also describes his first impressions of nuclear physics, the political climate in Italy in the 1930s, and the Rome school of physics.

Brief Report: Types of bullying among Italian school children

The main aim of this research was to investigate the prevalence of bullies and victims and the types and places of bullying. A questionnaire on bullying was completed by 113 girls and 125 boys in a middle school in Rome (aged 11–14 years). Over half of all students had bullied others in the previous 3 months, and nearly half had been bullied. Boys bullied more than girls, and both boys and girls tended to be bullied by boys. Boys were more likely to suffer direct bullying such as being threatened or physically hurt. Most of the bullying took place in the classroom; boys were likely to be bullied in the toilet.

Bullying among Italian Middle School Students

This article illustrates the relevance of combining methods to understand bullying. The aim of the study was twofold. First, to measure the prevalence of bullying in a middle school in Rome by administering a self-report questionnaire. Second, to understand and interpret the results of the questionnaire by adopting a qualitative method. Combining methods can be a useful research method to validate quantitative results and further investigate complex social problems such as bullying in school. Results from the structured questionnaire revealed that a high proportion of students reported being victims, bullies or both. To disclose some of the causes and possible explanations of the onset and persistence of these behaviours, a focus group discussion with students was then conducted. According to the students, the bully harasses others to gain a social status and affiliation to a group and to dominate the weaker members. Some victims, in order to defend themselves, start picking on weaker peers, thereby reinforcing the cycle of violence. Bullying should be stopped, but punishing the perpetrator is unlikely to solve the problem. Victims should be helped to find someone they trust to talk to without fear of being threatened or blamed.