26/05/2011

1

Master Class POSITIVE SCHOOLS

26th May 2011

What are the obstacles to finding

sustainable solutions for Bullying &

Aggression in Australian Schools?

PROBLEM 1

What do we actually

mean by „bullying‟?

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2

Five kinds of bullying

• 1. Physical bullying - e.g. hitting, poking,

tripping, pushing or damaging someone‟s

belongings.

• 2. Verbal bullying - e.g. name calling,

insults, homophobic or racist remarks and

verbal abuse.

• 3. Social (covert) bullying e.g. lying,

spreading rumours, playing a nasty joke,

mimicking and deliberately excluding

someone.

• 4. Psychological bullying e.g. threatening,

manipulation and stalking.

• 5. Cyberbullying - Using technology (e.g.

email, mobile phones, chat rooms, social

networking sites) to bully verbally, socially or

psychologically

Bullying isn‟t. . .

• mutual arguments and

disagreements

• single episodes of social

rejection or dislike

• single-episode acts of

nastiness or spite

• random acts of aggression

or intimidation.

Confusion needs to be cleared

up…

C

C

PROBLEM 2

Retaliation is the way

to go

There are significant

misconceptions about bullying

and cyber bullying in the

community

Professor Ken

Rigby

Karyn Healey

Phillip Slee

26/05/2011

3

And we

rewarded

Casey

Heynes!!!

“…He is a real

life hero!” –

Justin Bieber

PROBLEM 3

Parent Education is a

major challenge

Stats about Aussie Parents

15

believed they could be better parents 60%

75%

71%

believed parenting did not come naturally

had difficulty finding time to enjoy

activities with their children

55% lacked confidence in their parenting

80% wanted more information about parenting

but were too afraid to ask for advice for

fear of being stigmatized as a poor parent

My philosophy of Parenting

• Set limits and boundaries over things

that matter:

– Sleep

– Alcohol

– Sex

– Drugs

– Internet use

– Exercise

– Diet

– Curfews

Is your child prepared? When filters were first made free

by the Howard Government…

Downloaded the filters

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March 2010

C

According to Australian

research presented on

the 21st May 2010,

90% of Grade

4 students

have a

Facebook

profile

Microsoft conducted a national

survey of parents last year and

discovered that 80% did not

know

That the Xbox 360

had parental

controls

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-

family-safety?os=other

What it does… • Use activity

reports to

monitor your

kids'

computer

activity

• Choose

websites,

games, and

programs they

can access

• Set time

periods when

they can use

the computer

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5

Use filters on their phones

a)

b) c)

Set up a Google Alert

http://www.google.com/alerts

www.cybersmart.gov.au/Parents/Guide%20to%20online%2

0safety/Guide%20to%20online%20safety.aspx

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PROBLEM 4

An expectation that we

can stamp out bullying

or cyber bullying

A key consensus point on the psychological

study of Bullying

(Rigby 2009)

• Bullying has been reported

as occurring in every school

and kindergarten or day-care

environment in which it has

been investigated

Source: http://www.kenrigby.net/

Prefrontal Cortex • Called the “Voice of

Reason”

• Is the last bit to

mature

• responsible for such

things as

– impulse control,

– emotional regulation

– strategic planning

(anticipating the likely

consequences of one‟s

actions) –

• continue maturing

through the teenage

years

Bill Belsey‟s

perfect storm

PROBLEM 5

Just because someone

is cyber savvy, does not

mean they are a

cybercitizen

Cyberia

• Rules of social

engagement have

changed

• Act out their

passions and

make their

mistakes in a

relentlessly public

place

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The digital divide

• The adults charged with the care of the next generation feel as though they are shut out, on the other side of the bedroom door.

PROBLEM 6

Educate Parents about

the pros and cons of

Facebook

• digital peer pressure enormous

• pre-teen & teen credibility linked with online

activities

• important part of maintaining social „currency‟

• poor understanding of short & long term

ramifications of building a digital footprint

Current Australian research tells us that for

students using social media:

*Marc Prensky Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants 2001

the term „digital native‟* is

misleading

Young people may

have been born in

the technological

age but they

aren‟t born

computer

literate or well-

versed in digital

citizenship skills

What is your child’s digital footprint

Can they

Manage their digital

footprint?

What about Facebook?

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The Courier-Mail May 24, 2011 12:00am

Hey

Mark,

Why not

make it 6

months

old?

The myth of multi-tasking

• Non users

spent 88%

more time

studying

outside class

• 75% of users

said spending

time on FB

did not affect

their

academic

performance Herald Sun 8/9/10

Togetherville

How many FB users know…

All of this information is stored in

the „cloud‟ limiting

user‟s control over their own digital footprint

Under FB Terms of Service, once you sign up,

FB owns your content even after your account is deleted

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Survey of top students in the HSC 2010

revealed that all students with a perfect

score had one thing in common

They all gave up

Facebook for the

year

PROBLEM 7

Educate Schools about

bullying and cyber

bullying policy

implement

The major problems with

cyberbullying policies

1. There is no overarching ethos

www.kanderstegdeclaration.com

Geoff Smith

26/05/2011

10

The major problems with

cyberbullying policies

1. There is no overarching ethos

2. Students are not involved in the

drafting of policies

Electronic bully box

• Harassment and

bullying gain

momentum when

students remain

silent

• Confidential

email service

that allows

students to make

the first move to

break the

harassment cycle

The major problems with

cyberbullying policies

1. There is no overarching ethos

2. Students are not involved in the

drafting of policies

3. Policies are not backed up by the

curriculum

4. Policies are not regularly

reviewed

5. The schools are hesitant to call

the police

PROBLEM 8

Australia needs some

cyber bullying and

bystanders CSA‟s

Bystanders Generic Bullying CSA

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11

Bystanders CSA Cyber bullying ad

UK Anti-Bullying Campaign

and

bullying…

Need Clarification around the Law

15 year old Student Bullied from grade 2 to 6

Group of 4

girls

Sworn at

Wrote foul

words on her

belongings

Pinched,

kicked and

punched

Threats made

to kill her

Pushed off parallel

bars to land on her

back, suffering a

back injury

Menaced with

scissors

Parents removed

Child from school

in grade 6 to a

private school

Hired lawyer and sought

crimes compensation for

this enduring bullying

Victorian legislation

provides compensation

when a person is the

victim of what's called a

criminal act

Tribunal dismissed the

application as being

speculative and

imaginative

Appealed to

Victorian Civil and

Administrative

Tribunal

Ruled against the

girl these bullies

were children and

children can't form

the necessary

intent to commit a

crime as we

understand it in

our legal system.

Victorian Supreme

Court ruled you

can still have a

criminal act, even

though there's no

person who can

be held culpable

for the criminal act

Sent back to

VCAT

Decided not to sue school as it

would be necessary in order to

claim pain and suffering, to show a

psychiatric impairment of 10% or

more

Decided not to sue the perpetrators

as they are under the age of 18

years, they're children, they have no

assets whatsoever

Decided not to sue parents for being

vicariously liable as they could not

prove that they were encouraging

the children to engage in that

behaviour

Herald Sun

30th August 2010

26/05/2011

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What happens if…

• X bullies Y online from home

• Y kills himself as a result

• Is it anything to do with the school?

Taradale

• In October 2001 a group of 7

Tarradale High students were

arrested after a student was

assaulted

• 7 boys were charged, tried and

jailed for sexually violating

their classmate with a

broomstick after an

unsupervised drinking session

at the home of another

student whose parents were

overseas

The judge ruled • that schools had a duty

to work actively to

detect incidents before

they become full-blown

and to break down such

cultures when they do.

• Programs need to be put

in place that force the

bystanders to step in and

report the abuse

• environments need to be

developed with victims of

abuse will be supported

so the choice is not either

to be used or to be isolated

Justice

Lowell

Goddard

Pursued

negligence claims

against a school in

the Civil court

• in 2007,enduring a 2 year campaign of terror

started at the hands of an older boy in the

Hunter region

• he was awarded a million dollars

• the judge found the bullying was so bad that

he was permanently impaired by this,

psychologically and he had no chance of getting

a job or sustaining a relationship.

• Justice Simpson found that the school and

NSW education authority failed to protect the

victim despite repeated complaints from his

mother

• An Education Department officer had told Mrs

Angela Cox that "bullying builds character".

• Benjamin, now 18, was diagnosed as suffering

separation anxiety disorder, post-traumatic

stress disorder and depression.

Ben Cox

• successfully sued the state's

Education Department suffers

OCD and agoraphobia and has

blamed his condition on bullying

he was subject at school

• Justice Elizabeth Fullerton has

awarded him almost $470,000 for

losses connected to his inability

to work

• The court heard Mr Gregory was

subjected to six years of bullying

at the school in the NSW's north-

west.

• He was called a "poof" and a

"Nazi" and he was hit and

publicly humiliated.

David Gregory

Justice

Elizabeth

Fullerton

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13

March 11th 2010

• THE Victorian state government has been

forced to pay almost $300,000 in

compensation to a teenage girl who endured

months of bullying at a country high school,

culminating in one of her classmates

threatening to bring a gun to school to shoot

her.

• In what is believed to be one of the largest

payouts for a school bullying case in Victoria,

the 17-year-old girl successfully sued the

Education Department after she was

repeatedly abused and harassed by a group of

students at Kerang Technical High School,

near Swan Hill.

Growing signs of militancy

Age 20/4/04

Remember

“…No snowflake in

an avalanche ever

feels responsible.”

François-Marie Arouet 1694 – 1778 (aka Voltaire)

The End

www.michaelcarr-gregg.com.au

Michael.carrgregg@gmail.com