Nation of bullies: One in six school students fall victim
A report has revealed Australia has some of the worst bullying statistics in the world, with some startling figures about the kids facing the most bullying.
NSW
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Australian school students are among the most bullied in the world, with parents who have lost children to suicide warning they will not be the last unless all governments commit to urgent change.
A survey by The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) found one in six students are bullied at school, a number that puts Australia ahead of comparative nations like the United States, England, New Zealand, Ireland and Canada.
The most common form of bullying reported by children was being “made fun of”, while one in 10 students said they were deliberately “left out” by their peers and had “nasty rumours” spread about them.
Country students reported being bullied more regularly than their city counterparts, while the ACER report also found kids at government schools experienced more bullying than those at Catholic and independent schools.
The worrying statistics come after the release of the Charlotte’s Wish documentary by The Sunday Telegraph last week, in which parents across Australia laid bare the pain of losing a child to suicide after relentless bullying.
Parents across Australia have shared their most personal pain, losing a child to suicide after relentless bullying, as part of the Sunday Telegraph’s Charlotte’s Wish documentary.
One of the mums, Mel Graham, said she just “can’t comprehend” why more isn’t being done to stop bullies at school and online — and why her proposal for change eight years ago wasn’t implemented. “We know how to help these kids, we’ve been there. You can’t get this out of a textbook,” she said.
Her daughter, 14-year-old Jess Tolhurst, didn’t stand a chance, taking her own life in 2015, the day before her parents were taking her to the nearest Illawarra police station to secure an apprehended violence order against her abusers.
“Bullying needs to be stamped out and schools need to be a safe place for all students and teachers,” Ms Graham said.
“Consistent laws across states and territories should be designed to protect youths, schools and other organisations from abnormal violent harassing behaviour.”
Jessica’s Law proposed to create a guiding set of principles to reduce and eliminate bullying and harassment before tragedy strikes.
“Our calls have fallen on deaf ears and here we are again hearing about more children dying. It’s time to listen to us”.
Amy “Dolly” Everett’s death in 2018 was one of the first times Australia stopped to talk about youth suicide, and her parents Kate and Tick have continued to push for change through Dolly’s Dream.
Last week they put their support behind The Telegraph’s push for consistent national standards for bullying, which coincided with the launch of Charlotte’s Wish documentary.
Earlier this month, as part of their own work with Dolly’s Dream, they asked their social media followers if they had experienced bullying at school. Of the more than 2200 respondents, 89 per cent said they had.
Ms Everett said despite all the work they did learning about Australia’s bullying problem and trying to prevent another child losing their life, she still had days where she questioned why their daughter was targeted by bullies.
“There won’t ever be a day where we look back and don’t think, ‘why us’, because we are an average rural family from the middle of nowhere in Australia,” she said.
“Why (was she the child) that was picked on, or is that Australian culture and something that is systemic and built from our communities?”