KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O are deluded over St Paul’s College mum meltdown | David Penberthy

There’s a lot going on in this story. None of it involves heroics (save for the teacher who managed the situation), no matter what KIIS FM thinks, writes David Penberthy.

How apt that the job fell to Kyle and Jackie O to make a national hero out of a South Australian mother who threatened to “slit the f…ing throat” of a 12-year-old girl in a foul-mouthed classroom invasion.

In some deluded circles – none more so than the studios at KIIS FM – this mother has been lauded if not deified for barging into a year 8 classroom at St Paul’s College, in Gilles Plains, and taking the alleged inaction over her daughter’s bullying into her own hands.

Sorry, but on what warped planet does this mother become a hero?

Only on one where we have seen a continuing debasement of public behaviour and discourse – demonstrated by the fact that the likes of Kyle and Jackie O actually have an audience – where making a pig of yourself is regarded not only as acceptable but admirable.

A parent has confronted a 12 year old student at a Gilles Plains school accusing them of bullying her child. Picture: Supplied

KIIS FM breakfast radio hosts Jackie 'O' Henderson and Kyle Sandilands. Picture: Supplied

The mother was charged this week over her behaviour, but not before being given an armchair ride by the KIIS FM brains trust which earns her a mountain of vacuous praise of the “you go girl!” variety.

She was labelled “Mama Bear” for her apparently loving and wise decision to barrel into a classroom where she screamed the f-word seven times at the top of her lungs and among other things shouted “Do you want to go, bitch?” in the face of a 12-year-old girl.

The nationwide newspaper coverage of this story attracted many comments about the mother were also laudatory.

“You go Mumma! I would have done the same,” wrote Mem.

To Mem, and to everyone else who thinks like Mem, I would seriously ask which part of this tawdry and frightening incident is worthy of commendation.

I have heard a lot of people say there must be a backstory here involving the treatment of the mother’s daughter.

I totally agree with them.

Maybe she has complained about her daughter’s treatment. Maybe those complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

Maybe, as is sometimes the case at private schools, management’s first instinct has been to circle the wagons to avoid negative publicity rather than address the problem at hand.

But by what warped logic does the mother’s behaviour become not just the only legitimate course of action, but something to be celebrated?

If you haven’t watched the actual video, it is worth a look.

It is a case study in the kind of unrestrained madness that is all too common these days, be it casual profanity and menacing and violent misconduct on public transport, incidents of road rage where people threaten to kill each other because someone failed to indicate, or the kind of shopping aisle conflict we saw back in 2020 when morons slugged it out for the last remaining eight-pack of toilet rolls.

The first point to be made about this extraordinary video is that it all unfolded in a classroom filled with children. Imagine how genuinely terrified those kids must have been.

Aside from the full-throttled swearing, as the mother ranted at the top of her lungs, the actual specific threats of violence were graphic in the extreme, which no doubt is why she’s now been charged over it.

The second point to be made is the impact the incident would have had on the teacher, and on young people who might be considering a career as a teacher.

The whole episode underscored the valid complaint of teachers these days – and, rightly, the Australian Education Union – namely that the management of parents can be just as challenging or more challenging than the management of the children themselves.

It’s not really surprising that someone like Kyle Sandilands would survey all this and like what he sees. After all, this is the same bloke who asked a raped teenage girl if she’d had other sexual experiences, and who when I was editing news.com.au called one of my young female colleagues a “fat slag” and said “I will hunt you down, girl” in response to an article he wasn’t happy with.

With a track record like this it almost gives Kyle an excuse. None of the rest of us has one, in looking at a scene that deserves condemnation and offering applause instead.

I was only ever bullied once as a kid, and it was really quite an unpleasant experience.

Kyle Sandilands with wife Tegan Kynaston. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

For a few days in a row this older kid would wait for me after school and punch me in the guts and push me into fences.

That same week I went up the road with 20c to buy some mixed lollies and the boy was outside the deli. I ran home before he could see me and Dad asked why I had come home so fast without any lollies.

I fessed up about what had been going on. Dad started the car and drove up to the deli.

He politely approached the boy and said that if he continued beating me up he would report him to the police. The boy became agitated.

He pleaded with Dad not to alert the cops, saying his own father bashed him all the time and that he would get another thrashing at home if the police became involved. The kid never touched me or spoke to me again.

It was a different era.

I feel sorry for that kid who bullied me. I feel sorry for all the kids involved in this incident – the bullied daughter, the alleged bully, and all the young onlookers.

I also feel sorry for the mother who lost her composure so badly that day, behaviour for which she subsequently apologised.

There’s a lot going on in this story. None of it involves heroics on anyone’s part, save for the teacher who managed to keep everyone relatively calm while the madness unfolded.

Originally published as KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O are deluded over St Paul’s College mum meltdown | David Penberthy