The Orihuela Town Hall, through the Department of Social Welfare, has organised a conference for 5th November focused on preventing violence among adolescents and cyberbullying, coinciding with the International Day against School Violence and Bullying, including Cyberbullying.
Presented by the councillor for Social Welfare, Agustina Rodríguez, the event will feature two sessions directed at secondary education students, families, teachers, and education professionals. The initiative aims to address bullying situations, risks associated with social media use, and available prevention tools.
The programme will begin at 10:00 at the Teatro Circo de Orihuela with a session aimed at third and fourth-year ESO students from municipal educational centres, including Orihuela Costa. During the morning, the theatrical production ‘Querido ChatGPT’, written and directed by María Ortuño, will be performed, addressing relationships among teenagers in the digital environment and the consequences of cyberbullying.
Following the performance, a participatory discussion will take place with psychologist Alfonso Navarro, a specialist in youth psychology and family dynamics, who will discuss with students how to identify bullying situations, take action against them, and request help.
The second session will be held at 19:00 at the María Moliner Municipal Library, directed at families, teaching staff, and education professionals. Under the title ‘La posición de los adultos frente a la violencia’, Alfonso Navarro will offer a presentation focused on detecting warning signs, communication with adolescents, and family and educational accompaniment in potential bullying situations.
Agustina Rodríguez explained that these conferences complement the ‘La Buena Mochila’ programme, which has been running since October across 20 schools in the municipality and is expected to reach about 1,200 primary education pupils. This initiative, developed by technicians from the Department of Social Welfare, tackles the prevention of bullying and violence within the school environment.
The councillor concluded by explaining that the conferences will allow this issue to be addressed from the perspective of both teenagers and adults in their environment, paying special attention to prevention, early identification of risk situations, and the importance of having tools to act when faced with them.