A leading parenting expert has lambasted the response from authorities to a group of teenage boys who were allegedly discussing sexually abusing women and girls while on the bus home from school.
This masthead understands the boys, from Shenton College in Perth, were identified on Wednesday after the school questioned everyone who caught the bus route named by a concerned community member, who overheard the comments.
The witness to the behaviour claimed the group had been behaving “incredibly disruptively almost all afternoons this school year” while on public transport, but that their behaviour had been escalating.Credit: Arsineh Houspian
That member of the community reported the incident to the school last week.
The boys were allegedly discussing ways to sexually assault teachers, students and strangers, and in some cases were passing images of those people around.
Justin Coulson, co-host and parenting expert on Nine’s* Parental Guidance show, said the response from the school and the Department of Education was lacking, labelling it “tepid, bureaucratic, and utterly ineffective”.
Department of Education North Metropolitan Region regional director Cheryl Townsend previously told this masthead the department encouraged people to report such incidents to schools, Transperth, and police if the behaviour was criminal.
In a Facebook statement, Coulson said while he understood the processes involved in investigating, he was “frustrated” by them.
“School leaders, if you’re responding to these incidents with disappointment rather than immediate, meaningful consequences, you are teaching boys that sexual violence is a minor infraction,” he said.
“You are complicit in creating the next generation of men who view women as objects for their entertainment and abuse.
“Parents, if your son is discussing sexual assault as entertainment, this isn’t boys being boys. Your son isn’t expressing normal teenage masculinity – he’s revealing dangerous attitudes that have the potential to shape his behaviour toward women for decades.”
Coulson also disagreed with comments from another parenting expert, who said it was important to give young boys the chance to change their behaviour without being treated as “monsters”.
“When boys openly discuss plans to sexually assault their teachers, sisters, and classmates, we don’t need ‘shame-free discussions’,” he said.
“We need swift, decisive intervention that makes it crystal clear – this behaviour makes you unworthy of the community’s trust and educational opportunities until you demonstrate real change.”
Treasurer Rita Saffioti labelled the behaviour as “shocking” when questioned about the incident at a press conference on Wednesday.
Saffioti also said it was “disturbing” teenagers were being exposed to extremist views online, which may have fuelled the ideologies expressed by the group on the bus.
“I hear it a bit from my children, about what is being put out there. It’s very, very disturbing,” she said.
“It’s just humanless. People disassociate what’s happening on their phones to what is actual real life, and they don’t understand the difference.
“It’s a challenge for parents, it’s a challenge for schools, it’s a challenge for the entire community.”
*Nine Entertainment is the owner of this masthead.
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.
National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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