New Zealand Scores Second Worse in World for Bullying in Schools

Source Stuff.co.nz
December 2008

NZ Schools Lead World in bullying

"Three-quarters of primary school children have been bullied in the past month, ranking New Zealand 34th of 35 countries in a major international study.

More evidence of an endemic bullying culture comes as teachers call for law changes to single out the most troublesome students and as the Ministry of Education plans a Behaviour Summit for early next year.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) showed only Tunisia had fewer Year 5 students reporting no instances of bullying over the past month.

Pupils were asked how often the following happened in their school in the past month:

Something of mine was stolen.

I was hit or hurt by other student(s) (for example, shoving, hitting, kicking).

I was made to do things I didn't want to do by other students.

I was made fun of or called names.

I was left out of activities by other students.

In New Zealand, 33 per cent of children answered yes to three or more of the questions -- far worse than the international average 18%.

A further 42% of pupils said they had suffered one or two of the bullying incidents in the past month.

Only Tunisia rated worse for bullying -- there, 23% of students reported no bullying.

Auckland paediatrician and former Children's Commissioner Ian Hassall said the high rates of bullying reflected a "punitive culture".

"It's not just children who are bullied; adults bully as well," Hassall said. "We do have a punitive society that rather believes in punishing people and threatening them, so it's not surprising that children pick up on this and go punishing one another."

Inquiries into school bullying by the Children's Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission are under way.

Briefing papers to the new Education Minister, Anne Tolley, reveal plans for a Behaviour Summit to be held in March next year.

The papers state that the Ministry of Education is already dealing with 4500 children aged five to 14 who have "the most severe behavioural needs".

"In March 2009, the ministry is planning to bring together the education sector and other stakeholders in a Behaviour Summit to consider the evidence on effective behaviour management and commit to a plan of action," the papers state.

A spokeswoman for Tolley said the conference plan was at a "very embryonic stage".

Only last week a 10 year old boy tried to jump from a school roof after suffering abuse at Ascot
Community school following burns he sustained in a fire 2 years previously.

In March 2008 Toran Henry, 17 died after a fight at Takapuna grammar school where he mother said he was bullied by both students and staff

New Zealand's Culture of Brutality

Peter Duune has said

"anti-bullying, and "character education" programmes were needed in primary and intermediate schools.

"The culture of brutality that we have tolerated for too long has to stop,"

Racial Sensitivity May Have Caused Classroom Stabbing

Despite allegations that are students were told not to speak to the media on threat of expulsion further details are leaking out about the shocking classroom stabbing yesterday of teacher David Warren at Avondale College. A 17 year old student at the college Tae Won Chung appeared in court today and was denied bail.

This from the NZ Herald
by Beck Vass

"Joke about South Korea"

"...Students told the Herald Mr Warren's attacker was a Korean national who principal Brent Lewis said had been at the school "three or four weeks". [note: the student was at the school for the whole of 2008, see below]

One student, who did not want to be named under threat of expulsion, said an incident had taken place at the school on Monday.

"Yesterday, some kids in that class said [the teacher] must've said a joke about South Korea - and that guy's from South Korea."

The 20-student class were studying NCEA level two and three Japanese.

Mr Warren was stabbed just below his right shoulder while writing on a whiteboard, standing with his back to the class.

A student who had been waiting to see the nurse said a teacher and another pupil had burst in, shouting that a teacher had been stabbed.

"We were in the nurse's room and one of the students in the class and a teacher came in shouting for the nurse to come, someone's been stabbed - they said he was on the floor.

"The nurse left and the bells went off."

Police and ambulance services arrived shortly after, and Mr Warren was taken to Auckland Hospital in a serious condition.

Mr Lewis said he knew nothing of claims that a racial remark had triggered the attack."

Incident the previous day

"However, one teacher said staff were told that "an incident" had occurred between Mr Warren and his alleged attacker in class on Monday.

Students gave different assessments of Mr Warren's teaching style.

One told TV3's Campbell Live Mr Warren, 49, was "all right".

"He would pick on [me] - because I'm Japanese myself - he picked on Japanese people because he expected us to know Japanese.""

Teacher's "usual comments" offended students

"Another told the Herald some of Mr Warren's "usual" comments had the potential to offend.

"If we're running in the hall, he'll say: 'You, the big Islander one over there, get over here'."

Parents arrived early to collect students who witnessed the attack. Many of the teens had their faces covered with jerseys.

Mr Warren was still in Auckland hospital when the Herald visited his Waterview home last night.

His flatmate, who asked not to be named, said Mr Warren was a "very kind man" who is very fit and often rode his bicycle to school."

Student's parents are on the way to NZ

The Herald reported at 12.35pm today that the parents of the student arrested for the stabbing are on their way to New Zealand from Korea. It also stated that the student was neither new to the school nor New Zealand.

by Vaimoana Tapaleao, Beck Vass and Edward Gay

"At the court this morning, Korean consulate staff member Jun Lee said the schoolboy's family were on their way to New Zealand from South Korea.

Mr Lee said he was in court this morning to provide support for the homestay family,

One member of the family told nzherald.co.nz that the accused schoolboy had been in New Zealand for two years and at Avondale College all of 2008.

She said he was also in Mr Warren's class last year. Avondale College yesterday said the student had been at the school just three or four weeks.

Court has been adjourned and the accused has yet to appear."

Additional information:

• Identity politics behind school stabbing?: Link
• Online (Soompi) community comments on racism in NZ schools: Link
• Reader comments Korea Post.co.nz (Korean) : Link
  
• Racist remarks drove student to react: Link
  
• Chosun.com coverage (Korean): Link
  
• Bullying in NZ's Schools: Link
• More On Violence in New Zealand Schools: Link
• Racist reporting of the event in the media: Link
• Teachers at school gates telling students not to talk to the media:Link
• Levels of risk for NZ teachers gets higher every day: Link
• Suburb going down the tubes: Link
• 37,500 schoolchildren have severe forms of destructive & challenging behaviour. Link

Bullied Boy Tries to Jump From School Roof

From ODT

"A full-scale emergency response was sparked when a 10-year-old boy threatened to jump from the roof of a school building in Invercargill yesterday.

Senior Sergeant Dave Raynes of Invercargill Police said police, fire and paramedics were called to Ascot Community School at 11.45am after the boy threatened to jump from the roof of a single-storeyed building.

He was coaxed down by police investigators and taken to Invercargill police station, where he was to meet with mental health services.

It was understood the boy had been a victim of bullying about burns he had suffered in a house fire two years ago."

Comment:

Its appalling that a child as young as 10 was so repeatedly viticimised at school that he was driven to suicide.

In March of 2008 teenager Toran Henry, 17, died suddenly after he was beaten up in a fight videoed by Takapuna Grammar students.

Gang fight at a Wellington School

More evidence that gang activities and violent behaviour in New Zealand's schools are getting out of control:

Source NZ Herald

"A 23-year-old man has pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful assembly, following a brawl in the grounds of Hutt Valley High School yesterday.

Police said a series of fights broke out shortly before 3pm after a group of three adults and six youths arrived at the school and confronted a student about a previous fight.

The school field erupted into a brawl when about 30 students went to aid their schoolmate.

About a dozen police were needed to quell the fighting and arrest the nine members of the group, who the school's principal said were wearing gang colours.

All nine were charged with unlawful assembly."

Comments:

The incident was also reported by the Dominion Post who omitted to mention that the invasion had been carried out by patched gang members, merely calling them "a group".

One of the 2,000 students at the school has published a video of the incident, believed to have been started by gang called the "Wax Assassins", on YouTube

"Hutt Valley High School BLOODS Vs HVHS"

( link youtube.com/watch?v=ni-0niLt_74 )

The "Wax Assassins" are a youth gang from Wainuiomata with links to the Mongrel Mob

Human Rights Abuses at the school

An article on the Asia Pacific Forum.net website recently highlighted human rights abuses and bullying at the school, whereby boys were dragged onto the school field and violated by their classmates.

Concerned parents reported the incident to the Human Rights Commissioner and calls were made for a national enquiry into pupil safety and school violence:

"The Human Rights Commission is to investigate schools' anti-bullying policies to see whether children's rights to safety are being protected.

The move follows calls for a national inquiry by parents of bullying victims at Hutt Valley High School. The investigation is linked to a study by the children's commissioner into pupil safety and school violence.

Chief Human Rights Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan agreed to analyse children's human rights concerns after meeting Hutt Valley parents. Her report will focus on "the right to safety and security of the person, the right to education and the rights of victims".

It will consider how human rights are addressed by schools' anti-bullying policies and make recommendations in situations in which policies are not protecting children.

The Government unveiled anti-bullying initiatives this year after a spate of school violence.

Documents issued under the Official Information Act show Education Minister Chris Carter called for urgent action amid fears that schools were not treating bullying as a priority.

Last December nine Hutt Valley High School boys were dragged to the ground and violated by a pack of six classmates.

The victims' parents wrote to the Human Rights Commission alleging a "systematic failure" by state agencies responsible for protecting children. They asked for a national inquiry into violence and human rights abuses in schools.

The commission has agreed to assist Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro's school safety investigation, which is due to be issued in February.

The Hutt Valley parents' spokesman welcomed the investigations, saying playground violence was "a much broader issue than one school ... We're talking about child abuse".

New Zealand Going to the Dogs?

Source: Britishexpats
"I have lived in NZ for 31yrs and my opinion is that it is getting worse and that the criminals are the ones that seem to have all the perks...I believe that prisons all over New Zealand should have a lock down one day a year and open the prisons to the general public or send the TV cameras in, after all we are paying for this so lets see exactly where our money is going...

I would bet that they live better lives in prison than some kiwis on the outside do with no stress of where their next meal is coming from and how will they pay next months power bill (of course they dont have a power bill to worry about because you and I are going to pay for it through the tax system)

This is where govenrment needs to get the balls to bring the prisons back to basics. A bare room with a bed and 4 walls to contemplate the crime that they have commited (this would happen in a perfect world but we aren't living in a perfect world are we) But then i guess the human rights thing would come into play, those poor prisoners have rights too well im sorry but I believe they gave away their rights when they commited the crime. So my belief is start at the bottom forget the death penalty for now and make life inside what it should be.

I also feel that things will get worse with the mentality of some of todays younger crowd have you ever been out late at night to pick up a takeaway im talking at around 11.30 - midnight time. I have and its extremely intimidating, theses kids and they are very young are drinking their heads off and using goodness knows what else and they really dont care...I sat behind a car in McDonalds last weekend and there were these 2 girls hanging out the back windows of the car and the noise they were making was indescribable it sounded like a cat stuck in in a doorway and they were totally off their faces and teenagers were walking along the road carrying boxes of beer. I was really freaked out and locked my car doors the atmosphere was like something was going to kick off any minute and if it had i had no where to go as i was stuck in a McDonalds drive through..And inside it was worse the place was full of kids off their faces....

My question is what are these kids going to be like as adults, we all used to go out and have a good time as teenegers often having too much to drink but nothing like what im seeing today these kids are binge drinking and smoking and taking whatever drugs because they are easy to get nowadays we are allowing a culture to grow and the bottom line is these kids are going to munt their brains and lots will turn into crims because society wont want to employ them.

My apologies if i have rambled on here, there are so many vairables of why there is so much crime but that the bottom line is that there is no deterent to not be in jail. I have seen the tv programs where the drug smugglers or whatever are in the jails overseas are living in basic accomodation thats what we need over here the people that they attack rob or whatever have had their basic human rights taken away so why not the crims...............

And did you see another stabbing in Hokitika last night! School ball after function got out of control.......http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/2...-ball039-party"