$7 million paid out to bullied students and teachers
SCHOOL bullying is costing taxpayers millions in payouts to students and teachers who have suffered psychological injury and “severe psychiatric disorders”.
NSW
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SCHOOL bullying is costing taxpayers millions in payouts to students and teachers who have suffered psychological injury and “severe psychiatric disorders”.
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal compensation claims and out-of-court settlements over bullying and harassment cost the state government more than $7 million between 2014 and 2017.
Education Minister Ron Stokes said bullying has become one of the most challenging issues in schools, which have been forced to take on responsibilities that parents have abandoned.
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“Family structures are changing and becoming looser and in some cases weaker,” Mr Stokes said.
“We need to equip kids to help each other reject bullying because we can’t rely on families as much as we have done in the past.”
Payments to 20 students and three teachers averaged more than $300,000 each, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
Since axing the controversial Safe Schools — an anti-bullying program that was accused of indoctrinating children into left-wing gender politics — Mr Stokes has been searching for a more holistic strategy.
Mr Stokes’ hope is to find an antidote to all forms of bullying, rather than focusing on homophobia and transphobia.
“The consequences of bullying are lifelong, devastating, are often intergenerational, have huge impacts on the health of our society and the productivity of our economy,” he said.
“Bullying has always been a problem but we’ve never quite understood how much damage it causes and once we have better ways of addressing it, we can build and happier and more confident society.”
NSW Secondary Principals Council president Chris Presland agreed with Mr Stokes that parents are increasingly shifting the burden of bullying to schools.
“One of the frustrations for schools is cyber bullying that occurs at 2am in the morning and parents will rock up to school the next day to show you screenshots and expect you to do something about it, completely ignoring their responsibility as parents,” Mr Presland said.
The school syllabus deals directly with cyber bullying, which has stemmed the tide, which is corroborated by gradually declining payouts.
Bullying cost the state government $4 million in payouts in 2014, $1.194m in 2015, $984,886 in 2016 and $860,257 last year.
“Online bullying is still a serious problem but it’s better than the free-for-all a few years ago,” Mr Presland said.
“There wouldn’t be a school in the state that’s not devoting classroom time to tackle online bullying because it’s quite literally embedded in the curriculum.”
The government has commissioned psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg to review phones in schools, which is tipped to ban smartphones in primary schools to stem cyber bullying.
A new anti-bullying video starring kindergarten kids will be launched at an Australian-first anti-bullying strategy conference starting tomorrow.
The conference will hear from leading lights in bullying, aggression and school adjustment from Australia, Canada and Finland, and travel to Dubbo, Ballina and Wagga Wagga to hear from parents and kids.