John MacDonald: We shouldn't be in the dark to the reality of bullying

Isn't it crazy that schools don't have to report how much bullying is going on?

The Chief Children's Commissioner thinks so too, which is why she’s saying that it should be mandatory for schools to provide regular, publicly-available numbers.

No wonder some parents feel their school isn’t doing enough about bullying. Because, if you don’t have to report it, it's much easier to sweep under the carpet, isn’t it?

Thankfully, our kids never had any serious problems with bullying. And I'm pretty sure I didn’t, either, when I was at school.

I had a few run-ins and there were probably some kids I knew to avoid. And one of the two high schools I went to in Dunedin was pretty violent. But I'm pretty sure I wasn’t the victim of bullying. Unlike a lot of other people who were or are.

Although, maybe I can't say that, because we don’t know the numbers. And I don’t think we have a hope in hell of doing anything meaningful about school bullying until we do.

Because, at the moment, we only hear about individual cases.

A couple of years back, I remember Ashburton College being in the news on a regular basis, with parents and students talking about bullying being bad there.

And I remember, of course, the school trotting out the usual lines about how it takes bullying seriously. Which, to be fair, it probably did. I haven’t come across a school yet that turns a completely blind eye to it. But, because they don't have to keep records and numbers and share them with the Ministry of Education and make them publicly-available, we don't how seriously schools really take it.

Claire Achmad, the Chief Children’s Commissioner, is saying today: “I am keen to see regular, publicly reported data about bullying in schools, so we can continue to understand the scale and nature of the problem for children and young people.” 

She’s being polite and is saying she’d “like” to see it. I’m saying that we have to see it.

Because, imagine if you could access this kind of data. Do you think schools would make sure they did everything possible about bullying? Of course they would. They would probably do a lot more than some do at the moment. Some schools will be better than others.

I see that the secondary school teachers union is acknowledging that it’s a bit of a “blind spot”.

Chris Abercrombie of the Post-Primary Teachers Association, says doing more about bullying could be part of the answer to the problem we’ve got with so many kids not turning up at school. Which makes sense. Because, if you’re being bullied at school, that’s the last place you going to want to be, isn’t it?

He says there's no national plan for dealing with bullying. And that, for me, is the gap that needs filling. As well as mandatory reporting of bullying, which is what the Chief Children's Commissioner is calling for.

Because this lack of a national plan means individual school boards have the job of dealing with it. I know. I served on a school board for about six years and it was on us to decide what to do when a case of bullying came up.

So every school board in the country is doing its own thing and they are under no compulsion to share any intel with the Ministry of Education and parents.

And, until they do, we will be in the dark as to how much of a problem bullying actually is.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Isn't it crazy? Isn't it crazy that schools don't have
to report how much bullying is going on? The Chief
Children's Commissioner thinks so too, which is why she's saying
today that it should be made mandatory for schools to
provide regular, publicly available numbers. I mean, no wonder some
parents feel their school isn't doing enough about bullying because

(00:35):
you know, if you don't have to report it, guess
what much easier to sweep it under the carpet, isn't it? Thankfully?
And I say that, I mean that, I mean this thankfully.
Our kids never had any serious problems with bullying, and look,
I'm pretty sure I didn't either. When I was at school,
I had a few run ins, and there were probably

(00:58):
some kids I knew to steer clear of, and one
of the two high schools I went to was pretty violent.
But I'm pretty sure that I wasn't the victim of bullying,
unlike a lot of other people who who were or are,
Although maybe I can't say that because we don't know
the numbers, and I don't think we have a hope

(01:20):
in hell of doing anything meaningful about school bullying until
we do, because at the moment we only hear about
individual cases, don't we. A couple of years back, I
remember Ashburton College being in the news on what seemed
to be a regular basis, with parents and students talking
about bullying being pretty bad there. I remember to, of course,

(01:44):
the school trotting out the usual lines about all we
take bullying seriously blah blah blah blah blah, which, to
be fair, it probably did. I mean, I haven't come
across the school yet that turns a completely blind eye
to it. But we know, not me that, of course
we know that. Because they don't have to keep records

(02:05):
and numbers and share them with the Ministry of Education,
we know how much easier it must be to sweep
out under the carpet than it would be if they
did have to share records and numbers with the haunchos
in Wellington, if they did have to share the numbers
with parents. Now, Claire Akhmad is the Chief Children's Commissioner,

(02:29):
and she's saying today quote, I'm keen to see regular
publicly reported data about bullying in schools so we can
continue to understand the scale and nature of the problem
for children and young people. Ended quote. She's been very polite,
and she's saying today that she would like to see it.
I'm saying today that we have to see it because
imagine if you could go online and find out what

(02:51):
the bullying numbers are like, maybe even at your school
or at a school you're thinking of sending your kids to.
Do you think schools would make sure they did everything
possible about bullying. Of course they would. They probably do
a lot more than they do it the moment. Some
schools are probably better at dealing with bullying than others.

(03:13):
But I see see today that the Teachers' Union is
acknowledging that it's a bit of a blind spot. That's
the term the head of the PPTA, which represents high
school teachers, as using a blind spot. This is Chris Abercrombie,
and he says doing more about bullying could be part
of the answer to the problem we've got with so
many kids not turning up at school. And that makes

(03:34):
sense to me because if you're being bullied at school,
the school is the last place you want to You're
going to want to be isn't it. And he says
there is no national plan for dealing with bullying, and that,
for me is the gap that needs plugging, as well
as mandatory reporting of bullying, which is what the Chief
Children's Commissioner is calling for today. Because this lack of

(03:55):
a national plan, it means that individual school boards have
the job of dealing with it. I know about that
because I served on a school board for a couple
of years and it was on us the board to
decide what to do when a case of bullying came up.
So every school board in the country is doing its
own thing, some probably handling it better than others. And

(04:16):
each school is under no compulsion to share any intel
at all with the Ministry of Education and parents, and
because they're not required to, I think we can say
that we are pretty much in the dark as to
how much of a problem bullying actually is at school. Now.
I'm picking you're like me, and you've reached a conclusion

(04:37):
that it's a real problem, But we don't know for sure,
and we don't really know whether schools are doing any
good at stamping it out, which is why I agree
one hundred percent with the Chief Children's commissioner who thinks
it's nuts, and once it made compulsory for schools to
file regular publicly available reports so we have a better

(04:57):
idea of how much of a problem bullying is.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
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