School bags stolen. Coats ripped open with knives. Heads shoved down toilets. Books set on fire. Names written on walls. What is going on in Irish schools?

Each day frightened, and often isolated, pupils have to endure some of the appalling rituals listed above. They also have to endure rituals nobody in authority even knows about.

Years ago, violence in schools was meted out to pupils by teachers, sometimes priests, with many parents happy to see their children physically chastised because it meant they were spared the job that evening.

Pupils tended to suffer together. There was a sort of stoic solidarity in the face of such adult cruelty. Pupils compared their burning palms or engaged in bravdo about how many strikes of the cane they were able to handle before they flinched.

Today, violence, on a scale barely imaginable in the bleakness of 1950s Ireland, is being meted out by pupils to their fellow classmates.

In the 1980s, parent power brought an end to corporal punishment and forced those teachers who used it to find other ways to control their classes.

This was meant to eliminate violence from the classroom, but now teachers will tell you that pupil-on-pupil violence makes punishments administered by even the most sadistic teachers of the past look mild.

Like other insidious forms of abuse, bullying is hard to quantify. The Department of Education does not collect statistics on how often it takes place. Schools, not surprisingly, are not keen to talk about the problem. Talking about it might make people think you have a problem, one principal confided to this reporter last week.

The veil of silence is being broken, albeit slowly, by a new group called Concerned Parents Against Bullying (CPAB), led by two energetic and determined women, Lorraine O'Connor and Barbara Fennelly.

THEY have sent up a confidential phoneline and since it started several months ago, it has received thousands of calls from parents unhappy with how their child's school handled the issue, they claim. Many calls, they say, have been from pupils crying out for help.

The stories coming from the helpline have been truly shocking, say the women.

One involved two teenage boys leading away a seven-year-old, in a similar fashion to the Jamie Bulger case, beating him up, filling his mouth with grass and then sending him home with a warning never to tell anyone about it.

Another case involved a girl who was bullied by another female pupil. When the victim said she would tell her father, the bully said she would publicly accuse the victim's father of sexually molesting her.

Then there is the protection racket in one prominent fee-paying school in Munster, where a group of Leaving Cert students collect money from fellow pupils. If you do not pay up, you go down - literally, as you are pumelled by blows and kicks.

Another ritual in another school on the east coast happens right under the noses of the authorities. A can of Coca-Cola is kicked around the corridor and when it hits a boy, the culprits all rush in and kick and punch him. Predictably, a particular boy always seems to be the one who is hit by the can - and then the fists.

Often modern technology is used in a poisonous and hurtful way, with mobile phones and text messaging the favourite weapon of many bullies, who are now able to remain anonymous if they choose.

O'Connor says girls often use this form of intimidation, calling their victims "tarts" and honing in on their weight or lack of savvy when it comes to fashion labels.

"There is a much more sinister element in society nowadays than years ago," says O'Connor.

"When we were all in school, we all had the roughly the same, but now the lack of material possessions is a target for bullying."

A lack of respect for authority among the younger generation is also a problem, she says.

"I am no disciplinarian, but now many children are frightened of no one. Maybe we have gone too far with the softly-softly approach," she says.

THE women have now established five branches of their group, and are hoping to help start others. They are having to fund their campaign themselves.

They have requested a meeting has with the Minister for Education,

Dr Woods to elicit for funds - and action.

While it is still an embryonic movement, the National Parents Council (Post-Primary) is already giving the CPAB support.

"There is a crisis in the schools today. It is a simple as that. We have had several big meetings and more are due.

"We want to be recognised, in the same way as the parent associations are. So it's about time the Government recognised this," says O'Connor.

The two main demands the group are looking are a "mediation" system between parents and schools and a review of all bullying policies in schools and their codes of conduct.

The current system for investigating complaints about bullying is wholly inadequate, say the women.

"Often it takes so long, whether it is the board of management or the Department who are investigating it, that the victim has left the school by time the investigation is concluded," says O'Connor.

THE response at the public meetings has been overwhelming, say the women. Mothers have stood up and spoken of sons and daughters committing suicide after incidents at school.

Fathers have spoken about collecting their tearful son for the final time from one school and bringing him to another the next day.

This is the most exasperating facet of the bullying problem, say the women.

"Why should the bully remain in the school, when the victim is forced to uproot themselves and move to another school?" Fennelly asks. "This seems to be totally wrong."

CPAB can be contacted at (086) 345 8172 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Pupils are also welcome to send text messages to that number.