The Children's Commissioner says there needs to be a zero tolerance approach to bullying.
The Children's Commissioner says there needs to be a zero tolerance approach to bullying.
Bullies have been labelled 'gutless cowards' by the Children's Commissioner, as New Zealand now ranks as having the world's worst bullying problem in schools.
Judge Andrew Becroft has spoken out after shocking video emerged of two Invercargill schoolboys viciously kicking and punching two fellow students on Monday.
It was unsurprising but disappointing that New Zealand now held the title of having the highest rate of reported bullying among young people in the world.
"On the last international [Pisa] report we were second, now we're first.
"It's well recognised that we have the highest rate of bullying in the world so we sadly lead the world on that roll of shame."
However, it did not occur in a vacuum and was "intimately connected with high rates of abuse and neglect, high rates of inter-partner violence and family violence and most concerning of all, high rates of youth suicide".
"That series of issues which are interconnected are a bleak side of New Zealand that we're being slow to face up to, slow to join the dots about and is not the New Zealand that we want and it is a cause for continuing shame."
Earlier this year Becroft had attended a principal's meeting at the Invercargill school where this week's bullying took place - he said he was sure the school leadership would be devastated by what had happened this week.
The Children's Commissioner says there needs to be a zero tolerance approach to bullying.
"And I'm equally sure that they would take it very seriously and follow it up and considerate it absolutely abhorrent and totally inconsistent with the school's values.
"I think the parents ought to be reassured that the school will take it seriously and I would be astonished if they didn't."
He had noticed a slight sea change occurring in schools, the Government and the community generally, "that bullying is seen for what it is, cowardly, a twisted attempt at power manipulation".
"It's why the Ministry of Education is advising, and I think should be insisting, that all school boards should have an effective anti-bullying policy and that bullying is brought out into the open of every school and is discussed and resolved, so students know and can trust that there are procedures and that bullies are seen for what they are which is cowardly and gutless and that it's okay to raise incidents of bullying and those who are bullied are not seen as weak for doing so.
"We've got to reverse that power dynamic."
Becroft said he wanted all children to be given the opportunity to flourish.
Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft says he would be shocked if the management at the Southland school involved in the bullying incident didn't take it seriously.
"We want all children to continue to thrive and to flourish and to prosper and to reach their full potential and no family, no community, no school wants children to be victimised in this way.
"Bullying is a pernicious occurrence that damages teenagers, in particular, and we need to be quite clear about that."
Another sad fact about bullies was that they themselves were often the "victims of violence or exist in families where violence and bullying is perpetrated in front of them".
"That is part of a cycle that we need to break.
"The paradox is we have this set of very bleak statistics where most of our children do really well ... I mean we have young people competing in athletic competitions, hip hop competitions, winning bronze medals at Winter Olympics.
"The paradox is why New Zealand, that is such an advanced and prosperous nation with so many resources and opportunities, with so many kids doing so well, why at the same time do we have this interconnected set of what I call very bleak and totally unacceptable statistics?
"That is something that should rightly perplex and concern us because none of these issues that I've talked about should be viewed in isolation."
As for the videoing and sharing of the attacks, Becroft said while it was a new phenomenon, police now had the new Harmful Digital Communications Act legislation as an extra offence to consider alongside that of the violence itself.
"There's no minimum age on arrest. For instance for 14- to 16-year-olds there's a very effective youth justice system in place and for 10-13-year-olds there's also a child offender system that has teeth and is effective.
"The public need to be reassured about that. The police say they're investigating it and so they should."
As for New Zealand's shameful new trophy, Becroft said the ultimate goal would be for bullying to be unacceptable and there be consequences for those involved.
"We need to repeat that any form of bullying is unacceptable, that is non-negotiable and every school that I know would share that aspiration.
"I do think things are changing. I think parents need to know that schools will respond and that kids who are bullied need to be reassured that it will be taken seriously and it will be responded to and that teenagers need to be encouraged to report it and call it out in any form."
Report content whether targeted or not
Netsafe's director of education and engagement, Sean Lyons, told the Herald videos had been used to revictimise young people.
"There are technologies out there that allow people to share this type of content. There are times when people use this technology and will do it intentionally to cause harm ... and that is what happened here," he said.
"As a nation, we recognise that harm can come from this type of thing and that's why New Zealand has legislation that stops this happening."
Lyons urged people to report the video to police, whether they were personally targeted in it or not.
"We need to start reporting this content to police ... From what experience tells us, the faster you deal with these things the quicker the stuff goes and less likely harm will be the result of it."
