Abusive school parent ban laws target social media, shops, camps

Abusive parents and carers face bans from schools for targeting teachers on social media, in emails or at shopping centres.

Abusive parents and carers who harass school staff online, in shopping centres or on excursions will be banned from campuses for up to six months under new laws proposed to arrest a surge in aggressive behaviour.

Reports of unsafe or inappropriate behaviour, along with barring notices, have both more than tripled in the past five years at state government education sites, such as schools, preschools and offices.

Draft laws revealed by the Sunday Mail broaden the grounds for issuing barring orders, including for the first time harassing staff through electronic communication or posting inappropriate material about them on social media.

Locations also are extended beyond an education site to any place where staff are being harassed, such as shopping centres, excursions, camps, traffic crossings or within 10m of a school boundary.

Incident reports have increased from 112 in 2019 to 387 in 2023, while 43 barring notices were issued in 2019 compared to 137 in 2023. The trend is continuing this year – government education sites issued 53 barring notices and 202 warning letters in terms one and two.

Education Minister Blair Boyer said he wanted to strengthen laws after hearing details of behaviour targeting staff. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Education Minister Blair Boyer said he wanted to strengthen laws after hearing details of behaviour targeting staff. Consultation on draft legislation opens on Monday.

“Right now, with teachers being harder to attract and retain than ever before, the choice is simple – we better protect teachers from this sort of abuse or we don’t have teachers,” Mr Boyer said.

“The increase in abusive behaviour by parents and carers towards our school teachers and principals is completely unacceptable. Nobody deserves to be unsafe at work ever.”

Other key changes in the proposed laws include:

BARRING notices applying for six months, extended from three months.

EXTENDING grounds to issue a notice to include someone believed to pose a risk to safety or wellbeing of staff or the learning environment.

TARGETING “vexatious communication” to or about education staff, including publishing material about staff or approaching them.

DIRECTING someone to leave an education site and not return for two days if they pose an imminent risk to safety or are significantly disrupting learning.

The Advertiser revealed the proposed crackdown last November, when Opposition education spokesman John Gardner said the Liberals would “consider constructively” any new proposals but cautioned against too freely using legislation to push aside “potentially reasonable concerns that a parent might raise”.

SA Secondary Principals’ Association chief executive Jayne Heath said the changes hopefully would give principals and site leaders better protections and address current legal loopholes. Picture: Keryn Stevens

SA Secondary Principals’ Association chief executive Jayne Heath said the changes hopefully would give principals and site leaders better protections and address current legal loopholes, such as camps, excursions and social media harassment.

“Educators go to work to educate and support children and young people – not to deal with parents or carers who seek to intimidate or abuse,” she said.

“It is not acceptable in any workplace, let alone in our schools. The impacts of this behaviour can be significant.”

Australian Education Union state president Jennie-Marie Gorman said: “The AEU has been calling for changes on the dealing with abusive parents and welcomes the opportunity to consult on the draft legislation.”

Originally published as Abusive school parent ban laws target social media, shops, camps