School bullying and injuries cost state millions
29th March 2010
From the Parliamentary Library
Author: By FARRAH TOMAZIN EDUCATION EDITOR
Publisher: Fairfax
Publication: The Age, Page 3 (Mon 29 Mar 2010)
Keywords: Martin (1),Dixon (1)
Edition: First
Section: News
School bullying and injuries cost state millions
Cases may be tip of iceberg
MILLIONS of dollars have been paid out to students and teachers who have been bullied or injured in public schools, throwing doubt on state government claims about school safety.
New figures obtained by The Age reveal the state government has paid a total of almost $800,000 to 16 victims of school bullying over the past seven years in damages or out-of-court settlements. A further $14 million was spent over the past decade compensating students and teachers for injuries resulting from playground punch-ups, sporting events, or falls and slips on school grounds.
The biggest sum for a bullying case was awarded last month, when the Education Department paid a $290,000 out-of-court settlement to a teenage girl who had endured months of violence and abuse at a country high school, culminating in one of her classmates threatening to bring a gun to school to shoot her.
Legal experts believe the figures may be just the tip of the iceberg. Under laws introduced several years ago people are ineligible for compensation unless left with permanent psychological damage assessed at greater than 10 per cent. To win compensation for physical injuries, they must prove body damage of more than 5 per cent.
"It immediately makes you think, geez, how many other cases haven't been raised because they haven't met the threshold?" said Barrie Woollacott, a specialist public liability lawyer for Slater & Gordon.
An Age analysis of the latest data shows:
|The department paid $175,000 to three victims of bullying in 2003;$125,000 to four victims in 2004 and $142,000 to six victims in 2005. Two more settlements were made in 2006, worth a total of $65,000, but none were made from 2007 to 2009.
|More than $14 million was paid in compensation to students and teachers injured on school grounds between 2001 and 2009, including $235,000 awarded to six students involved in a fight and $165,000 to a student hit while playing hockey.
|Since January 2008, the Australian Education Union has received 376 phone calls from Victorian teachers concerned about bullying from parents, students or colleagues.
An Education Department spokeswoman said student safety was taken "extremely seriously" in schools, with all schools required to have an anti-bullying policy and comply with relevant occupational health and safety laws in a bid to keep the injury count low.
But the figures may prove sensitive for Premier John Brumby and Education Minister Bronwyn Pike ahead of November's state election, with both keen to sell the message that the government does not tolerate bullying and violence in schools. Earlier this month, Mr Brumby described school bullying as an "insidious and completely unacceptable practice", and yesterday, a spokesman for Ms Pike talked up the government's "Respect in Schools" strategy as a way of promoting positive behaviour.
State opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon accused the government of empty rhetoric. "I wish the government would spend as much time and money tackling the issue of bullying in schools [as] they do on trying to hide it and make secret payouts," he said.
Union state president Mary Bluett said teachers were under growing pressure and needed more government support.
Parents, meanwhile, say they want their complaints taken more seriously
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Martin Dixon MP
State Member for Nepean
Shop 1, McCrae Plaza
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Phone: (61) 3 5986 6661
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Email: martin.dixon@parliament.vic.gov.au