Page 504 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The story came to the attention of the Canberra Times and in early February this year an article indicated that the situation at this school was not recent and that the incidents referred to were not isolated. References were made to a student injured in March 2018, which was advised to the directorate, and another student who was hospitalised as a result of being thrown against a brick wall. It is probably appropriate that I remind members that these incidents are occurring in primary schools within the ACT—children aged between five and 12 years old.
In the Assembly last week the Canberra Liberals asked a number of questions about what the minister knew about the incidents at this primary school, what she had done about these concerning reports and what is being done to support parents, children and the school community. The minster gave multiple assurances that the school in question was being supported, that new strategies were in place and that parents who raised concerns had been contacted.
According to parents at the centre of the issue, the minister’s responses did not accord with their recollection or their experience and they are still waiting for answers and for evidence that anything is changing. As the Canberra Times perhaps more accurately records:
The incidents were alarmingly frequent and widespread … but the school and the education directorate appeared to turn a blind eye to their severity despite complaints stretching back to 2017. Responses were often not followed through as promised or not disclosed and some parents had not been told about incidents at all, including those involving head injuries …
In case the minister believes we are unreasonably targeting this school, the sad reality is that in the past weeks the opposition, particularly Ms Lee, has been contacted by parents from at least two north side schools outlining their concerns over issues that read very similarly.
One of those parents wrote to the minister in 2017 outlining that teachers at her child’s school were frequently crying in frustration in front of their class, students were crying because of violence in the classroom that was not being addressed and that teachers were not being supported by the directorate. Multiple parents from that north side school wrote to the minister in the middle of last year, but little changed other than an exodus of teachers at the end of the year; teachers who were no longer able to operate in such a toxic, violent and unsupported environment.
At another school an assault was filmed and the footage later circulated. The parent said she had no confidence in the way the school was dealing with the incident. The incident brought forward the predictable and meaningless responses. It was accompanied by shallow assurances that strategies and systems were in place at that school.
A parent from yet another school, this time in the inner south, reports that their son was bullied for several years. The school would investigate but never reveal what happened due to confidentiality. It was only when some parents witnessed the bullying of a girl after school that the school finally took any action.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video