MEDIA RELEASE 13 July 2006

Educators discover new online voting system is a Bully Beater

London – 13 July 06, Primary and secondary schools are discovering an innovative way of using a new, web-based, polling service to defeat bullies. The service is called School Poll and operates through the website www.schoolpoll.com.

How does the Bully Beater poll work? All student names appear in a permanent online poll with a name like Who's the School Bully? No one is shamed because all names appear in the forum listed alphabetically from the outset. The poll is visible only to students and nominated teachers. Any student can vote any time in privacy knowing that only nominated teachers can see who gets voted and who votes. However the nominated teachers see the bully names ranked by votes. Teachers can also see which students voted for anyone with bully votes by clicking the name of the alleged bully and this inhibits malicious voting.

Many students feel uncomfortable approaching school authorities directly. The Bully Beater poll makes it so easy for anyone who is bullied or who witnesses bullying to inform school authorities. People can vote in private from anywhere, perhaps from home.

One of the first schools to use the Bully Beater idea is St Mary's RC High School in Herefordshire. Assistant Head Mike Fitzgerald said, "No school is immune to bullying and schools have been searching for answers for a long time." He goes on to say, "We have been impressed by the Bully Beater poll idea. It has given us an immediate and very clear picture of where the bullying is occurring, who is affected and the extent of it. The Bully Beater won't end bullying but it's another weapon in our armoury."

The company behind School Poll, BigPulse.com, launched the website so schools could give their students a taste of democracy. The website enables schools to run secure polls and surveys on any topic imaginable at a short notice   including student elections and the Bully Beater poll. Every student can vote and all votes are counted live and automatically. It's a practical way to show that every child counts and is a perfect fit with the Self Evaluation Form.

School Poll founder Ralph McKay said, "It's a powerful statement to the entire community that bullying will not be tolerated. Every student will feel safer. Every parent will feel more at ease."

The technology can be used in a similar way to help school authorities report bullying incidents to education authorities.