Post by kokonutwoman on Mar 15, 2009 13:41:56 GMT 12
Radical plan to tackle school bullies
By CATHERINE WOULFE - Sunday Star Times
Last updated 05:00 15/03/2009
Schools could combat bullying by shortening lunch breaks and releasing classes at different times, says a top-level inquiry that will go public tomorrow.
The inquiry also warns that victims could sue teachers and schools that are slack in dealing with bullying.
It follows the 2007 Hutt Valley High School scandal where boys were chased, dragged to the ground and violated. The boys' parents called for an investigation, and tomorrow the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC) and the Human Rights Commission (HRC) will present their findings to a school violence summit in Wellington. The findings were released exclusively to the Sunday Star-Times.
The HRC paper says there are "glaring gaps" in the national guidelines that schools use to deal with bullying. In particular, the guidelines don't stipulate that parents must be informed when a child is bullied at school. The HRC says that should be mandatory.
It also raises concerns about whether the Education Review Office (ERO), which oversees schools' anti-bullying systems, is up to the job.
The OCC inquiry finds young people "had a sense that teachers focus on issues that have less impact, such as graffiti and being late for school or assembly", while many parents felt "that their child's school is doing nothing to stop the bullying".
"While it is now accepted that bullying occurs in every school, this inquiry determined that a minority number of schools either had no systems in place or those systems were not robust enough to cope when things go wrong. There is evidence to suggest that in schools where things went wrong, it went horribly wrong."
It analyses 103 bullying-related calls that parents made to the OCC, revealing:
A student needed hospital treatment after being attacked by four girls.
A boy had a brain scan after his eye socket was fractured.
A 15-year-old boy was totally ignored by his class "for a long period of time".
Boarding students were "dry humped"; others were tipped out of bed.
Education Minister Anne Tolley did not answer questions about whether the HRC's recommendations would prompt changes. She says there is no easy solution to bullying, but she read the OCC's inquiry "with interest".
Janis Carroll-Lind, principal adviser education for the OCC, headed its inquiry. She analysed the calls, reviewed bullying research, held focus groups and school case studies, and consulted young people.
She says most schools are tackling bullying appropriately, and most bullying happens "beneath the radar" of teachers.
The inquiry's main message is that schools must work to change the whole school culture, and foster a safe reporting system, rather than crack down on individual bullies. The recommendations cover staff training, setting up confidential reporting systems and procedures to deal with incidents, and communicating well with parents, police and other agencies.
The OCC also suggests schools make lunch breaks shorter and stagger bell times for different classes, so that fewer students would be roaming schools unsupervised at any one time.
Carroll-Lind says some schools are using this strategy already in big schools, it also means students can take turns using playground resources and she wanted to "put [it] out there as a possibility".
"Some schools also run games and activities at lunchtime to keep children occupied in the playground, because I guess it's when children are wandering around, out of the sight of teachers, the bullying is likely to happen."
Peter Gall, principal of Papatoetoe High School and head of the Secondary Principals' Association, says the key is proper supervision, regardless of how many students are in the playground together.
He says for timetabling reasons, many schools have cut lunch breaks down to 35 minutes, and made morning breaks longer to compensate.
The OCC also warns that bullying victims could take legal action against teachers, trustee boards and the Education Ministry.
"Key questions would then be: Was the school aware of the bullying? If yes, were appropriate steps taken to protect the bullied student... and to mitigate the effects?"
This has not happened yet (although legal action, and big payouts to victims, are common in Australia), but Gall is expecting a test case here at some point.
Carroll-Lind says "we would hate to go down that track... but schools do have a legal responsibility to be keeping children safe".
Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro says New Zealanders have a high tolerance to violence, but it is unacceptable that some children are so badly bullied they are afraid to go to school.
By CATHERINE WOULFE - Sunday Star Times
Last updated 05:00 15/03/2009
Schools could combat bullying by shortening lunch breaks and releasing classes at different times, says a top-level inquiry that will go public tomorrow.
The inquiry also warns that victims could sue teachers and schools that are slack in dealing with bullying.
It follows the 2007 Hutt Valley High School scandal where boys were chased, dragged to the ground and violated. The boys' parents called for an investigation, and tomorrow the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC) and the Human Rights Commission (HRC) will present their findings to a school violence summit in Wellington. The findings were released exclusively to the Sunday Star-Times.
The HRC paper says there are "glaring gaps" in the national guidelines that schools use to deal with bullying. In particular, the guidelines don't stipulate that parents must be informed when a child is bullied at school. The HRC says that should be mandatory.
It also raises concerns about whether the Education Review Office (ERO), which oversees schools' anti-bullying systems, is up to the job.
The OCC inquiry finds young people "had a sense that teachers focus on issues that have less impact, such as graffiti and being late for school or assembly", while many parents felt "that their child's school is doing nothing to stop the bullying".
"While it is now accepted that bullying occurs in every school, this inquiry determined that a minority number of schools either had no systems in place or those systems were not robust enough to cope when things go wrong. There is evidence to suggest that in schools where things went wrong, it went horribly wrong."
It analyses 103 bullying-related calls that parents made to the OCC, revealing:
A student needed hospital treatment after being attacked by four girls.
A boy had a brain scan after his eye socket was fractured.
A 15-year-old boy was totally ignored by his class "for a long period of time".
Boarding students were "dry humped"; others were tipped out of bed.
Education Minister Anne Tolley did not answer questions about whether the HRC's recommendations would prompt changes. She says there is no easy solution to bullying, but she read the OCC's inquiry "with interest".
Janis Carroll-Lind, principal adviser education for the OCC, headed its inquiry. She analysed the calls, reviewed bullying research, held focus groups and school case studies, and consulted young people.
She says most schools are tackling bullying appropriately, and most bullying happens "beneath the radar" of teachers.
The inquiry's main message is that schools must work to change the whole school culture, and foster a safe reporting system, rather than crack down on individual bullies. The recommendations cover staff training, setting up confidential reporting systems and procedures to deal with incidents, and communicating well with parents, police and other agencies.
The OCC also suggests schools make lunch breaks shorter and stagger bell times for different classes, so that fewer students would be roaming schools unsupervised at any one time.
Carroll-Lind says some schools are using this strategy already in big schools, it also means students can take turns using playground resources and she wanted to "put [it] out there as a possibility".
"Some schools also run games and activities at lunchtime to keep children occupied in the playground, because I guess it's when children are wandering around, out of the sight of teachers, the bullying is likely to happen."
Peter Gall, principal of Papatoetoe High School and head of the Secondary Principals' Association, says the key is proper supervision, regardless of how many students are in the playground together.
He says for timetabling reasons, many schools have cut lunch breaks down to 35 minutes, and made morning breaks longer to compensate.
The OCC also warns that bullying victims could take legal action against teachers, trustee boards and the Education Ministry.
"Key questions would then be: Was the school aware of the bullying? If yes, were appropriate steps taken to protect the bullied student... and to mitigate the effects?"
This has not happened yet (although legal action, and big payouts to victims, are common in Australia), but Gall is expecting a test case here at some point.
Carroll-Lind says "we would hate to go down that track... but schools do have a legal responsibility to be keeping children safe".
Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro says New Zealanders have a high tolerance to violence, but it is unacceptable that some children are so badly bullied they are afraid to go to school.
