Knights help pupils give bullies the boot

If every child who was bullied in the last month lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, they would stretch from Auckland to Wellington.

"If bullying was a public health issue, we would have a pandemic on our hands," said Kidsline manager Richard Taggart yesterday.

Mr Taggart was with the New Zealand Knights football team to launch a nationwide anti-bullying initiative, Kick Bullying Out of Schools.

The country's only professional soccer team have put their weight behind the project, saying the sport played by 200,000 New Zealand kids can help make a difference.

"Kids are literally dying in extreme cases and it is time the issue was tackled," said Knights director of marketing Simon Kozak.

Knights manager Paul Nevin and captain Darren Bazeley took time out from training to go to Murrays Bay Intermediate yesterday to launch the project.

Mr Nevin, a father-of-two, said his team were taking the campaign seriously. The team were in talks to have Kidsline as a logo across their shirts.

As part of the project, a website will be set up, and resource packs will be sent to every primary and intermediate school and coaching programmes to teach the sport's strategies, such as teamwork and responsibility, as a way of life.

Knights players will also visit schools as ambassadors and children will be invited to walk out as mascots at the team's home matches.

Kidsline was formed 18 years ago and is staffed by 65 teenage volunteers, who take calls from children. A third of the calls are about bullying.

Mr Taggart said one in four children were bullied every month - an average total of 146,250.

"Standing shoulder to shoulder they would stretch from Auckland to Wellington," he said.

One in 10 children had missed school because of fear of bullying and 85 per cent who called Kidsline had ignored it or walked away, only for the behaviour to continue, he said.