Bullies should be expelled or dealt with by the police, students say

DISTRAUGHT students are demanding schools call police or even launch legal action to deal with bullies, as students felt teachers were turning a blind eye to bullying.

The NSW Advocate for Children and Young People want more done when it comes to bullying.

DISTRAUGHT students are demanding schools call police or even launch legal action to deal with bullies.

The NSW Advocate for Children and Young People, Andrew Johnson, warned yesterday that most students felt teachers were turning a blind eye to bullying.

“Our ongoing consultations with thousands of children and young people across NSW, particularly those under the age of 14, highlighted that bullying is a really serious issue for them,’’ he told The Saturday Telegraph.

Mr Johnson said students wanted schools “to be stricter in dealing with bullying’’ by expelling troublemakers, calling in police or even suing serious offenders.

He said they wanted teachers to “enforce suspensions, expel students, get police involved and take legal action in certain cases”.

Students want bullies to be expelled or even face legal action.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW has warned that school bullies are using social media to encourage classmates to kill themselves.

It has told a state parliamentary inquiry into youth suicide prevention that the “deeply disturbing trend’’ is happening in “numerous schools’’ but the cases are confidential.

The latest NSW Health Department statistics reveal that 392 girls and 45 boys aged between 10 and 14 were admitted to hospital for intentional self-harm during 2015-16. Another 1386 teenage girls and 465 teenage boys aged 15 to 19 were hospitalised for self-harm the same year.

The NSW Education Department is recruiting 236 extra counsellors and psychologists to work in public schools.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies warned recently that 10 per cent of 14- and 15-year-olds have self-harmed over a long period, and half of those attempted suicide.

But the NSW government has ruled out including suicide prevention in the curriculum.

“(This) is not recommended, as it may have a negative impact on vulnerable students,’’ it states in its submission to the parliamentary inquiry.

“It is preferable to focus the discussion on mental health, resilience and skill development, such as seeking help, communication, connecting with others and problem-solving.’’

The Advocate for Children and Young People surveyed 1000 kids across NSW in June and found that 97 per cent had suffered bullying in the schoolyard or from classmates online.

Children told the Advocate they wanted teachers to do more to help them, and to “deal with incidents properly rather than ignoring them”.

Most children felt that bullies picked on other children because of their looks.

Three-quarters of kids said bullies targeted classmates over their “social status’’, race, disability or sexuality.

Kids living in rural or remote areas found bullying to be a bigger problem than those students living in Sydney.

* Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; headspace.org.au