Enough is enough.
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The horror stories have continued to flow into The Courier in the week since we ran an expose on the severity of bullying in our schools. These are not simple schoolyard tiffs or misunderstandings. These are cases of concerted and sustained bullying that have driven children to self-harm. The Courier does not maintain these cases are simple or there is some equally simple panacea. What we have amplified is how serious a problem we have.
The Aristotelian adage beloved by the Jesuits, “Give me the child at seven, and I will show you the man” has a terrible inverse. Where children are brutalized the consequences for future life are many and enduring; the risk of damage, dysfunction and even an ever-repeating spiral of brutal behavior. We reap what we sow. Ballarat of all cities should know just how poisonous and lasting is the legacy of abused children being condemned to silence and indifference.
The days of letting the children loose in the playground to sort out their own pecking order are gone. An adult savagery can be unleashed unless codes are set, boundaries clearly delineated and consequences made clear.
The skeptics will argue overly protective parents are interfering or ignoring the shared blame or worse, that kids should simply toughen up. But dozens of families leaving one particularly school due to unresolved bullying can’t all be wrong. If the policies and their implementation at schools, both private and state, are resulting in the kind of damage we are hearing, then something is not working. A policy is clearly not enough.
The Courier has deliberately chosen not to name the schools at the heart of this storm. One reason is we do not think targeting individual schools or principals serves the wider purpose of ascertaining just how we are failing our kids. Pointing the finger at one target makes it too easy to ignore the breadth of the issue and even that it is happening. Suffice they know who they are and it is time to get their house in order.
There is too little space here to unravel the complexity of causes and consequences let alone the range of solutions. Experts and educators we have quoted are more qualified to appraise the options but we certainly support the concept of a whole of community approach. At heart it must be to create or reshape a culture of safety and well-being, both believed and practiced by every child.