Bullying over appearances is rife in schools, warns victim

Adam Pearson, 25, said he was picked on every day while at a London secondary school, and has spoken out to stop other children going through the same ordeal.

The comments came as the Anti-Bullying Alliance today launched anti-bullying week, which will see schools across the country hold workshops teaching students not to pick on each other.

Mr Pearson said he became the victim of a campaign of name-calling when he moved from primary school to his secondary school - Shirley High School in Croydon - in 1996.

Now a researcher, Mr Pearson has a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis, meaning the nerve tissue in his face grows very visible tumours.

He said appearance-based bullying is still blighting schools: "I guarantee this is still happening now. It is all very well having an anti-bullying week, but it has to happen every single week of the year.

"I would say to anyone who is suffering, don't rise to it. Get your parents involved and ask to see the school's anti-bullying policy. It sounds very easy to say, now that I am 25, but please don't let it get to you, just try to ignore it."

Describing his experience of school life, Mr Pearson said: "None of the bullying was physical. In a sense that would have been easier. Name-calling is more malicious and psychological. It would happen every day, and I would wake up in the morning and know what was going to happen. There were times when I just would not go to school." He added that the bullying stopped when he went to university in Brighton, and people rarely comment on his appearance now.

"There is so much emphasis on appearance among teenagers at school," he said. "People live in a world of retouched photos, where everything looks perfect. Anybody who deviates from that is labelled as wrong. People need to be educated on this - from teachers to pupils and boards of governors."

James Partridge, founder of disfigurement charity Changing Faces, said: "Bullying of children and young people with disfigurements is a widespread problem. We know that 90 per cent of people associate negative qualities to people with facial disfigurements, which is a completely wrong assumption to have."