Editorial: School bullying a growing issue that needs urgent attention

School should be a safe space, a friendly and welcoming environment for each child.

Opinion

EDITORIAL

A 13-year-old Rotorua girl allegedly bashed and concussed by another teenage girl while walking home is so “terrified” of going to school that she will have to stop.

Rotorua Daily Post journalist Kelly Makiha spoke to the victim’s mother, who is furious that the teenager, also 13, accused of attacking her daughter has been “terrorising” the school yet, in her view, seems to face little consequences.

The mother said her once-happy daughter now suffers panic attacks and nightmares and is too scared to walk anywhere even with friends or siblings. The victim goes to Kaitao Intermediate, which has been the centre of five incidents relating to the alleged attacker, who does not attend the school and has been trespassed.

This story is tough to read and is just one of a number of bullying incidents in our schools that we hear about nearly every week.

In May, we reported on the death of 13-year-old Raiana Boyd, who was struggling with bullying. The family of fun-loving Raiana has written an open letter to the Prime Minister and Government begging for more help for teens in crisis in a bid to prevent any other families from dealing with the tragic loss of such a young life.

At 11 years old, Tangiwai Wilson died on August 18, 2020. Tangiwai, nicknamed Doddy by loved ones, was being bullied by her peers at the now-closed Melville Intermediate School in Hamilton. No one realised how bad the situation was until it was too late.

Last month, exasperated parents of children at St Benedict’s primary school in Wellington took their complaints about alleged “severe” bullying by students to the Education Minister’s office in their battle to be heard.

Desperate parents at the school spoke to the Herald about several instances of bullying, some of them severe, and the warnings they tried to sound to the school. The parents described instances of persistent bullying and harassment among schoolchildren, with some of them becoming so anxious they required counselling. A couple of weeks ago, the Ministry of Education said it won’t take further action and has left the matter in the hands of the school board.

The latest data from the OECD shows that every day, thousands of Kiwi children are being bullied. The ones mentioned above are just a few examples of a much larger issue.

According to Chief Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad, the numbers show New Zealand has the highest rate of bullying among school students.

Achmad says that, to fight truancy and lift school attendance numbers – one of this Government’s main talking points in the education sector – bullying must be tackled first.

“All children and rangatahi should be able to go to school every day and be safe and supported while learning, valued for who they are, celebrated for their diversity, and proud in their culture and identity – whatever that may be,” Achmad wrote in a piece for the Herald in May.

“While the Government is focusing on lifting school attendance, I’m concerned it’s missing one of the big reasons why, for thousands of children and young people, they don’t go to school regularly. It’s because school is a fundamentally unsafe place for so many. It’s the place where instead of being built up, their confidence and mana is ground down. Many have told me that they want to be in education, but that because of bullying, it’s just not safe for them,” she said.

School should be a safe space, a friendly and welcoming environment for each child. Instead, every morning, many parents across the country wave goodbye to their much-loved children, as they head out to spend the day in a place where they will be harmed.

It’s a complex issue and the responsibility cannot fall solely on the schools, but also on all parents, caregivers, and anyone involved in children’s lives. It’s a societal issue and not one we will solve quickly – but it’s also not one we can ignore. A world without bullying is possible and it’s entirely up to us (yes, including you, specifically) to create.