AUSTRALIA

Schools report big rise in school cyberbullying

According to the West Australian, reports of school students suffering from cyberbullying have surged in the past year. Ahead of a meeting of education ministers in Adelaide last week, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner released figures that show it has received 265 complaints of cyberbullying from children and teenagers so far this financial year. It is a 28 per cent increase on the 206 complaints received in the same period last year. State and Territory education ministers have been asked to share strategies to combat cyberbullying. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield attributed part of the increase in cyberbullying complaints to increasing awareness of the service provided by the eSafety Commissioner, as well as more young people being willing to call out bad behaviour online.

iPartners first to securitise private school loans in oversubscribed offer

According to the Australian Financial Review, EdStart, a two-year-old business, claims to be Australia's only lender specialising in private high school education. It just ran a $3 million securitisation to respond to "booming demand", according to founder Jack Stevens, and to grow its loan book from 68 families today to at least 420 in two years' time. The need for EdStart had arisen after almost two straight decades of private school fee increases outpacing inflation and wage growth, Mr Stevens said, there are still 1.4 million kids in non-government schools whose families are paying $10 billion a year to keep them there, so there's a huge market for debt solutions that support them.”

Canberra teacher fired over inappropriate relationships with students among several sexual harassment cases

The ABC News has reported that a Canberra teacher was forced out of the job for forming inappropriate relationships with female students and ignoring several warnings to stop. Parents and management raised repeated concerns about the exchanges before the Education Directorate investigated them in late 2015. There have been four sexual harassment investigations into Canberra public school staff and at least a further 12 in other ACT Government directorates since 2014. The teacher denied the allegations and was "disingenuous" in the response, employee relations claimed. The teacher did not accept the sacking, saying it was "an unfair consequence for the identified issues," before offering their resignation in the same letter. In a statement, an Education Directorate spokeswoman said the teacher was no longer employed in the directorate.

Yanchep mum calls for security guards to stop school fights

Perth Now reported on a Yanchep mother who has said security guards should be put in place if teachers won't intervene in student fights. The woman's daughter was repeatedly hit by another girl in the grounds of Yanchep Secondary College as others stood by and recorded the attack on their phones. The mother said she was more disturbed by a teacher seen in the video who asked the girls to stop but was seemingly reluctant to intervene further. A female teacher eventually stood between the two girls to break them up. Education Department policy allows staff to "take action, including physical contact with a student" to break up schoolyard fights if they can do it without putting themselves at risk. The Teachers Union advises educators not to physically intervene and instead issue instructions to students to stop.

Police Child Abuse Taskforce boss says under-reporting in NT a ‘major hurdle’

According to the NT News, under-reporting remains the biggest barrier to reducing child sex abuse in the Northern Territory, the head of the Police Child Abuse Taskforce says. The Child Abuse Taskforce had a major breakthrough this week with the arrest of a 58-year-old man who worked for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The man has been charged with seven counts of indecent assault of children aged under 16 and has been remanded to appear in the Alice Springs Local Court on May 24. Speaking before the latest arrest, Supt Leafe said police had done a substantial amount of community engagement work that meant more people came forward to report allegations of child sex abuse. But Supt Leafe said the reluctance of some people to come forward remained the greatest frustration of many officers.

Legal reform to benefit WA child abuse victims

According to Perth Now, lawyers are preparing for an “unprecedented” flood of hundreds of compensation claims for victims of child sexual abuse in WA once a major legal barrier is officially lifted. Reforms to lift the statute of limitations (through the Civil Liability Legislation Amendment (Child Sexual Abuse Actions) Act 2018), which required victims to launch civil action within six years of the abuse, passed State Parliament this week. Under the new regime, there will be no time restraint placed on survivors — many of whom have not been ready to disclose their ordeals until decades later — to sue their perpetrators or institutions. WA Treasury figures show the State Government could be liable for between $70 million and $647 million in damages over the next four years because of the removal of the statute of limitations. There will be no cap on civil damages under these new laws, except for a limit on legal fees. WA is yet to sign up to the Commonwealth redress scheme for victims of institutional child sex abuse because it has concerns about how the scheme, which has a $150,000 cap, will apply to child migrants and child sex abuse survivors with criminal convictions.

Children turned away from VIC Question Time after insults and bullying in parliament hit new lows

According to the Herald Sun, primary schoolchildren are being turned away from VIC State parliament during Question Time because of fears they will be exposed to bullying. The embarrassing policy change comes amid concerns about worsening behaviour in the Legislative Assembly, with politicians calling each other grubs, scabs, liars, imbeciles and “dickhead”. The new guidelines have resulted in primary students rarely visiting the Lower House.

Gosnells teacher forced from beloved career after student assault

According to the West Australian, a teacher with 30 years experience claims she has been forced out of a career she loved after being assaulted by a primary school student. Karen Young has said she was diagnosed with anxiety disorder after an eight-year-old boy threatened to stab her with a pen and fired staples at her and students at Ashburton Drive Primary School in Gosnells last year. While doctors recommended against her return to the school where she had taught for almost 27 years, they said Ms Young would be fit to work at other schools. But last week the Education Department told her she was to be retired on the grounds of ill-health and barred from working in a public school again, unless she reapplied for medical clearance.

INTERNATIONAL

Proposed bill to restrict use of word 'teacher' would fine those not suitably qualified $2000

According to the NZ Herald, a bill that will control who gets to be called teacher is before a select committee. If it is passed into law, using the word teacher without a teaching degree would be punishable with a $2000 fine. The intent of the Education (Protecting Teacher Title) Amendment Bill is to lift the status of teachers by stopping those who have not gained recognised teaching qualifications from using that title. Those who aren't qualified could use titles like mentor, lecturer, tutor or educator.

B.C. teacher suspended for leaving out a box of 20 carving knives in class

According to CBC News, a Peace River South district teacher in Canada has been disciplined by the B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch for leaving out a box of knives in his classroom. It's one action in a long disciplinary list against high school teacher Richard Payne, who was suspended without pay for two days after he left out the "unsecured box of 20 carving knives" on May 3, 2017. The agreement outlines several other disciplinary actions against Payne. In October 2011, he was sent a letter of reprimand following allegations that he had broken a meter stick over a student's back. In March of that year, he pulled a student from his chair and hit the student on the arm. He was suspended without pay after grabbing a Grade 8 girl's face and blowing on her nose in January 2014. He has been ordered to take a course on creating a positive learning environment or risk losing his teaching qualification.