I can remember the first time I was bullied. I was seven and it stays with me. The part that stays is the teacher did not want to hear my story. He just saw a girl on a swing and someone waiting for a turn. He didn’t see that the ‘somone’ had pushed me so high I was frozen with fear and the swing board on which I was standing was slapping the upper bar of the structure. The ‘someone’ had pushed to make me afraid. He told the teacher he had been waiting for a turn on the swing. I was told I was selfish. I burned with justice not done.
However, I was not hurt like the child in a recent violent school incident that occurred at Mercury Bay Area School. Things are not so black and white.
From the Principal
Ross Dunn, Principal was not able to put things in writing as he was at a Principal’s Conference in Queenstown. He made time on the weekend to speak to The Informer. Ross was very direct as are his facebook videos discouraging the use of social media to discuss the incident and also addressing the issue of making the toilets safer with more supervision.
In conversation, Ross was clearly disturbed by the physical violence of this incident. The behaviour is abhorrent to everyone at the school and they are meticulously following the Ministry of Education guidelines which are very clear in dealing with incidents such as this. Ross explained that this means that the identity of both victim(s) and perpetrators must remain confidential and the consequences must be dealt with firm and fast. The School Board is involved and ensure accountability. However, Ross was clear “that the consequences carried out cannot be fully explained to the public. We must allow for natural justice and to empathise with all parties affected by this.”
“We are building a positive culture and positive relationship and have done a lot of work on this with staff and students. Please keep this incident in perspective. That day, 880 other students at MBAS were at school and did the right thing.”
Ross reported that the school has big building projects on the go and part of that is work to increase visibility and safety with the toilets. However, he was clear that this incident and bullying is not about the state of the toilets. This incident was not off the cuff. It is about something far deeper and present in our society. Ross will bring a report on things happening at the school once he returns from the conference in a few days.
This adjacent article which is a part of Pauline’s Piece is due to the fact that we have no other room in the paper. Also this topic is very sensitive to many parents and members of the wider community. Richard Shelford-Woodcock asked to share what is being discussed out there regarding bullying.
There is a Letter to the Editor on page 18 relating to this.
Our Kids Deserve Better
By Richard Shelford-Woodcock
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