Parents threatening legal action if schools don’t meet their demands on way their child is treated

Teachers are being stood down and schools are spending millions dealing with false allegations or minor issues, amid growing legal threats from parents if their kids aren’t treated the way they want.

Victoria’s troubled mandatory reporting scheme has added to the legal burdens facing schools.

Teachers are being stood down from work for months, and schools are spending millions of dollars dealing with an increase in complaints and demands from litigious parents.

Education insiders have also told the Sunday Herald Sun Victoria’s troubled mandatory reporting scheme has added to the legal burdens facing schools, with more teachers than ever before being investigated over false allegations or minor indiscretions.

Parents are also more commonly issuing legal threats if schools refuse to meet demands they have for the way their children are treated.

A lawyer who advises schools across the state said he was aware of a case in which parents had demanded their child be allowed to identify as “non-human”.

Teachers are being stood down as they are investigated over, sometimes false, allegations.

Another family had also issued legal threats over a school’s uniform policy, which prevented their son from growing a beard.

“Some want to wear a tail under their uniform or identify as a cat,” the lawyer said.

“This is an ongoing issue at two schools I know of.”

Parents were also increasingly calling in lawyers to fight routine disciplinary decisions made by schools.

“Parents don’t believe the principal when they say their child slapped the face of a teacher,” he said.

Independent Education Union general secretary David Brear said there had been a significant increase in the number of complaints made against teachers and school support staff in recent years.

“Once a report is made, the employee will often be stood down from work for months,” he said.

“Often, even if the complaint is found to be unsubstantiated, the person is so damaged by the process they feel unable to return to work.

“On top of the personal cost to individuals, schools are being forced to divert millions of dollars away from student learning to investigate minor concerns that could be better handled by principals at a local level.”

The state government is yet to table a review into the state’s troubled mandatory reporting scheme, despite it being slated for release in mid 2023.

The scheme requires school principals to notify the Department of Education and, if appropriate, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, when allegations of reportable conduct are made.

The CCYP has seen an 81 per cent increase in reports made to it since the current mandatory reporting scheme was introduced in 2017.

Parents have also issued legal threats over a school’s uniform policy.

CCYP principal commissioner Liana Buchanan said her office wanted changes to the scheme so trivial and low-risk conduct was not reported to it.

She also said funding to her office “has not kept pace with rapidly growing notifications under the scheme.”

Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson called on the Allan Government to release the report into the review of the mandatory reporting scheme “so we can ensure the scheme is operating effectively to protect children, and that the processes are working when it comes to mandatory reporting and investigations of complaints”.

A department of Education spokesman said the “safety and wellbeing of students and staff is always our top priority. We take all complaints extremely seriously and they are all carefully reviewed.”

The government believes the procedures followed provide procedural fairness for staff who are the subject of allegations.