Discussion Board: General Issues

I have read and heard much lately in the media, about teachers who are bullied by students. I believe the statistic I heard quoted on TV3 Campbell Live was some 4% of teachers have suffered what they believe to be a serious assault.

Through my schooling during the 60's and 1970's, there was always small groups of students within schools I attended, who would give teachers serious lip and yes, even commit an assault. I wonder just a little, if the problem is really any different today to how it was then. Whether there has been true statistical increase, or simply an affect of better reporting and lack of statistical comparison.

I also remember of my school days, a good number of bullying teachers in our schools and I wonder what the percentage comparison would be if the question is asked in reverse. Who is bullying who?

Unfortunately I do not think it an exaggeration to say New Zealand has a bullying culture, reflected in our schools, families, the work place, business, in every facet of society right through to government. One only has to watch the antics of our politicians at times. Bullying no different than that which goes on in any school yard.

My simple answer, you may agree or not, is Kiwi's must become an intolerant society. Intolerant of all forms of bullying and it's ugly faces, such as hate crimes to highlight an example. New Zealanders need to become intolerant of a lot of things. A little evolution and revolution is needed. And society needs to make sure it also does not become the bully. We are also a punishment oriented nation, punishment in most forms teaches nothing more than resentment and does not remove the social conditions that cause the problems in the first place. Our society often seeks to control by bullying. We do not deal at the root cause, we run around sticking band aids on things when the injury has already occurred.

I wonder if I might enlist some help, I am gathering statistics on school bullying. There is a little poll on our Liston Parents and Students Forum. If your young one has suffered some indignity and you have a moment to click a few box's, I would appreciate your effort. Or indeed, if your young person would like to fill it out themselves they are welcome.

Sorry about the double inclusion, the site script produced a data error so message appears twice.

Also the script here does not allow links to show so it you don't mind having to reply in long hand so to speak, I will gathers your information manually.

Questions are phrased on our poll from the students point of view.

Have you ever been bullied....

Only verbally?

Physically?

At school?

Outside of school?

Was this assault by a single person or group?

Are there gangs in your school?

Have you ever been bullied by a teacher or other staff member?

Did you require medical attention?

Were the police involved?

Did the police handle the situation satisfactorily

Are you being regularly bullied?

Did your school handle the situation satisfactorily?

And just in case some visit this site...Are you a Liston student?

Just pick the questions that apply, no need to provide the negative answers.

Cheers,

Robert.

my child was bullied quite badly at school my kids and even a teacher (verbally) this helped to send her on a downhill slide then getting labelled as a bad kid and a losted cause, the school told me to keep her home when she was beaten up the the kids that did it got stood down for one day, i even had a father contact me and hit the roof cause his child was stood down, alot of schools dont deal with the bullies and the victims are to afraid to speak up in fear, ive pulled my child out of the school system and she now learns at home and i now wish i had done it ages ago, it would of caused her less stress and so much unhappiness that at the end of the day was uncalled for
and yes kids or bulling some teachers but so teachers can be just as bad and when they call kids dumb etc thats bulling as well

I empathise greatly with you. Unfortunately we find bullies everywhere in NZ.

In my sons own college it is not hard to find examples happening everyday but most worrying to me, it is not hard to find teachers, trusted adults who should know better, bullying our kids in the most disgusting ways. I sometimes think the emotional abuse some teachers are guilty of, can be far worse than physical because such abuse is dirty, hidden and ongoing.

Our schools need to be a sanctuary for our children, a place they feel safe and staff sympathetic to our children's problems, not adding to them.

My experience of how our school deals with the problem of teacher bullying, is cover up. One experience we had, where a teacher bullied many of our young men and even another staff member, publicly, brought no satisfactory disciplinary measures really and complaints swept neatly under the carpet and out of sight. Where a child can be stood down from a school for such behavior, this teacher was not stood down, not for one minute.

It is a problem with many of our schools that they do not engage with parents. The parent who makes a complaint often in these cases, is simply branded a trouble maker.

I am sorry your child and you as a parent have had to put up with these things.

Robert.

Hi, when I was a kid I was somewhat bullied at school. At primary school it was mostly becasue it was a small school and I moved into the area. At highschool it was mostly on teh school bus on the way to school and home. There were gangs at my high school. They tried to intimidate people all the time. Mostly I just ignored them and the idiot bullies got bored and went away. Also, it helped that I let on who I am related to and that scared the sh*t out of them and they didn't want the problems of dealing with that kind of thing outside of school.

My 9yo son has been through the whole bullying thing at school, but my partner, my mother and I were not going to stand for it. See my post about the gang of kids down the road.

It has taken 3 years to get the bullying sorted. I was not going to just move my son to another school, as it would have happened at the new school, and my son would have ended up with the whole victum mentality. I was not going to have that. My son saw that we believed in him, and it gave him the belief in himself that he needed to make a stand and be counted. The bullying dropped massively when he beat the crap out of them. It was very funny. I got a phone call from the principal of the school, I had to go down and see her about my son. I got there and she was trying her hardest not to laugh. She took me aside and asked me what my view on bullys was and what I had said to my son. I told her that my view is to walk away where possible, to get help, to try to talk ones way out, but that if they corner you, to pick teh biggest one and beat the crap out of them, but to make sure that if he was forced to do that, that he won. She burst out laughing and told me that my son had beaten up all 6 bullies that had him cornered! I asked him why, that I had told him to pick the biggest one, he said "but Mummy, they were all the same size..."
Since then, there has been some bullying, but I got the police involved. Its more verbal, with threats of physical violence and weapons waved around. Not alot of actual physical stuff anymore, as those boys are being watched very carefully by the police.

Our son is on the higher side of the physical scale too. Hes not the biggest, but he is most definatly one of the strongest. We do alot of physical activities, such as walking, playing ball, flying kites etc as a family. And when he is naughty, he does laps of our front lawn and the little so and so can outrun both my partner and I, and can do 50+ pushups at one go. And being the little perfectionist that he is, if its not a perfect one, he does not count it.

:-)

He's a good boy, but has a facination with the army, so does his "army training" most days with his 4yo brother in tow.

He has a full 6-pack, and is very proud of it, likes to show all the girls at school. I can see him having lots of female admirers when hes a little older!!!

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