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Weekly Wrap: September 16, 2021

15/09/21
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The information in the Weekly Wrap is aggregated from other news sources to provide you with news that is relevant to the education sector across Australia and worldwide. Each paragraph is a summary of the subject matter covered in the particular news article. The information does not necessarily reflect the views of CompliSpace.


AUSTRALIA

AFP warn about fast growing online child abuse trend

The AFP reports that Australian children as young as eight are being coerced into performing live-streamed sexual acts by online predators, who often record and share the videos on the dark net and sexually extort victims into producing even more graphic content. Australian victim identification specialists are seeing an increase in the volume of newly produced videos and believe hundreds of thousands of children in Australia and around the world have been tricked or coerced into unwittingly producing sexualised videos. Detective Sergeant Svetlana Palmer from the AFP says, "Child victims need to be reassured help is available and by reporting what has happened, they may help us catch an offender and prevent other children being harmed." The AFP is urging parents to have regular conversations with their children about their online activities, with a guide on how to do so available on the ThinkUKnow website and the ACCCE website. 

 

 

‘I want their voices heard’: Assault survivors to speak at consent roundtable 

The Age reports that several of the country’s most influential education and human rights stakeholders will join an online roundtable discussion about sex and consent education in schools, which is being led by activist Chanel Contos in a final bid to push for reform before the end of the year. Delegates will split into small groups where they will hear directly from a young person who has experienced sexual assault, but focus on the curriculum in their discussions. Ms Contos said it would be the last opportunity to put her petition in front of national authority ACARA before the curriculum for the next five years was finalised and submitted to the nation’s various education ministers. The new national curriculum draft, released by ACARA in May, has strengthened guidance on teaching about respectful relationships, sexuality and consent. But experts say it needs to more explicitly link those themes to sexual relationships and gender-based violence, and make that content compulsory.

 

 

Suspensions and expulsions could set our most vulnerable kids on a path to school drop-out, drug use and crime 

According to an article in The Conversation, an increasing number of students are being excluded from Australian schools, through suspensions and expulsions. Because exclusionary discipline does not address the issues underlying children’s behaviour — and can reinforce it — short informal exclusions quickly progress to longer, formal suspensions. One suspension can then become many. This progression was clearly laid out in analyses conducted during last year’s Inquiry into Suspension, Exclusion and Expulsion processes in South Australian Government Schools. Notably, four in five students suspended more than five times were found to have had a disability. Indigenous students and those living in out-of-home care are also massively overrepresented in suspension and exclusion statistics. Exclusionary school discipline is described as contributing to a phenomenon known as the “school-to-prison pipeline”. The authors assert, based on their research, an urgent need to challenge implicit bias, racism, and discrimination wherever they may exist, and develop culturally appropriate evidence-based prevention and intervention frameworks, as well as implement them on a system-wide basis. 

 

 

The young Australians writing speeches to be delivered in parliament 

SBS News reports that the voices of young Australians from across the country are set to be amplified from the floor of federal parliament next month as part of an initiative aimed at developing a diverse new generation of leaders and policymakers. The Raise Our Voice in Parliament campaign, spearheaded by social enterprise Raise Our Voice Australia, is asking Australians aged 21 or under to submit a 90-second speech on the topic: What is your vision for Australia in 20 years? Dozens of MPs from across the political spectrum and every state and territory have agreed to give up one of their speaking slots in October to deliver the chosen speeches. At the start of next month, a shortlist of speeches will be given to participating MPs, who will then decide which they will read during Youth Voice in Parliament Week, which runs 18-22 October. Speech submissions for the Raise Our Voice in Parliament campaign are open until 21 September.  

 

 

Vaccination blitz begins for NSW teachers 

The Educator reports that all education staff in NSW are now eligible to get an Astra Zeneca jab at the Qudos vaccination hub in Homebush. The vaccination blitz follows a decision made by health authorities last month to make the COVID-19 vaccine compulsory for teachers in NSW from November onwards and is part of the state’s roadmap for students to return to face-to-face learning. NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said tens of thousands of vaccinations have been reserved exclusively for education staff, with vaccinations one of the best lines of defence against the virus. "The Qudos hub is complimented by 35 walk-in clinics in western NSW, and countless more clinics, GPs and pharmacies across regional NSW who are taking bookings," Minister Mitchell said. From 8 November 2021, all NSW school and preschool staff will be required to have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. 

 

 

‘They just sit there’: The schools where hundreds of lessons are cancelled 

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that students at some NSW schools have missed out on planned lessons hundreds of times this year because there was no-one to step in when their teachers were away. The NSW Teachers’ Federation is campaigning for higher wages and better conditions to address the shortage. A spokeswoman for the NSW Department of Education said “We are trialling a casual supplementation program which looks at creating hub schools for casuals that can rapidly deploy them to schools who need a casual on short notice.” A $330 million tutoring program using casual teachers to help students catch up after last year’s lockdown reduced the pool of relief teachers further before schools switched to remote learning in July. A similar tutoring package is expected to follow this year’s lockdown. Consultancy Ernst & Young has been commissioned to develop a rapid teacher supply strategy and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is working on a longer-term teacher supply strategy. 

 

 

NSW inquiry rejects expert advice on Parental Rights Bill, and it will cause students to suffer 

According to an article in The Conversation, a new report by a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the Parental Rights Bill ignores scientific research in supporting changes to the Education Act. One Nation MP Mark Latham, who introduced the bill last year, chaired the committee. Its report endorsed proposed amendments to the Education Act 1990 and Bulletin 55: Transgender Students in Schools that will prevent schools from teaching that gender and sex are distinct concepts. The amendments may also prevent school staff from affirming and supporting their transgender students until consent has been gained from potentially unsupportive parents, and lengthy, expensive medical procedures have been completed. By preventing appropriate care for all students, such changes will further marginalise transgender and gender-diverse young people. This could increase their already high rates of bullying, mental illness and suicide. We currently have no strong scientific reason to believe that learning about gender diversity leads to people misattributing their gender. 

 

 

Religious schools in Victoria to lose the right to sack LGBTQ staff 

The Age reports that religious schools in Victoria will be prohibited from sacking or refusing to employ teachers because of their sexuality or gender identity under sweeping social reforms proposed by the Andrews government. Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said legislation would be introduced later this year to close an “unfair, hurtful” gap in anti-discrimination laws that allow faith-based organisations to discriminate on the basis of sexuality, gender and marital status. Lobby group Christian Schools Australia said it would oppose the legislation, with public policy director Mark Spencer saying it was “alarming”. But LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown said Victoria’s current laws were “out of step with 21st century community expectations”. Ms Symes said the reforms would “narrow” the exceptions to anti-discrimination legislation so that any discrimination would need to be “reasonable” and an inherent requirement of the job. The Victorian bill would also mean no faith-based organisations could discriminate when delivering government-funded services such as counselling or homelessness support, or hiring out community facilities.

 

 

How will Queensland's COVID-19 border bubble with NSW work? 

ABC News reports that from 1:00am this Monday September 13, anyone who needs to cross the border for essential work or essential purposes will be allowed in if they live in one of the NSW LGAs that will soon be out of lockdown. Queensland Health's website lists "essential work" as any work or volunteering that cannot reasonably be done from home, with school students and their attendance at school, tertiary education or childcare being considered essential. The regional NSW LGAs which are part of the border bubble include Tweed, Ballina, Byron, Moree Plains, Gwydir, Clarence Valley, Inverell, Glen Innes, Severn Shire, Tenterfield, Kyogle, Richmond Valley and Lismore. Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said that any Queensland or New South Wales worker will need to have had at least one dose of the vaccine to cross the border. Queensland border passes that were issued during the pause on arrivals into Queensland from midday on August 25 have been voided. Travellers will need to reapply for a Queensland border pass three days before entering the state. 

 

 

Parents of boy who wears hair in a bun at school await appeal decision 

The Courier Mail reports that Australian Christian College Moreton has appealed a tribunal finding that they directly and indirectly discriminated against student Cyrus Taniela on the basis of his race. The private school was ordered to apologise to his parents for proposing to expel him for failing to comply with its uniform policy that his hair be above the collar and not worn in a bun. Cyrus, who is of Cook Islands and Niuean heritage, has never had his hair cut. His parents had planned a large coming-of-age cultural haircutting ceremony in Sydney around the time Cyrus turned seven, when they felt he would be ready for it. The family has had to delay the ceremony because of Covid travel restrictions and now hopes to hold it next year, an appeal tribunal heard. The school appealed the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal discrimination decision, arguing the tribunal member made some legal errors. Two tribunal members hearing the appeal reserved their decision to be made at a later date. 

 

 

New gender neutral code for Indooroopilly State High School   

The Courier Mail reports that one of Queensland’s biggest high schools has revamped its dress code to be more ‘gender neutral’, complete with non-binary artistic impressions of students. Indooroopilly State High School, one of the state’s few public schools to allow students to wear casual dress, says it has undergone a “lengthy review process” to make the code more “inclusive”, “to highlight and celebrate our community’s diversity”. The Department of Education did not answer questions about what had been changed from the previous code, or what prompted the review, but The Courier-Mail understands a petition against the school’s previous code - which labelled it “sexist” – may have been the catalyst. “Indooroopilly State High School is a non-uniform school with a student dress standard approved by their P&C,” a department spokeswoman said. “Should parents or students have queries about their school’s dress code they are encouraged to discuss these with the principal and P&C.”  

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL

Britain’s young teens will be vaccinated - but with a single dose (United Kingdom)

The Age reports that minors aged between 12 and 15 in England will be offered just a single dose of Pfizer or Moderna beginning next week, with more research ordered into whether a second dose should be given, as is currently administered to those aged 16 and above. It comes just 10 days after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said that the benefits to children, purely from a disease perspective, were not great enough to justify giving them the jab, with children highly unlikely to develop serious disease from the virus. However, the committee had left the door open for teens aged 15 and below to be vaccinated, urging medical officers to consider the wider impacts of vaccination, including schoolchildren’s mental health and education. On Monday, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told a news conference that he and his colleagues in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales had decided that vaccinating minors would help reduce the disruption to their education. 

 

 

Cuba will begin giving shots to children as young as 2. (Cuba)

The New York Times reports that Cuba will begin vaccinating children as young as 2 against the coronavirus this week, making it the only country so far to immunise children that young. Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing in Cuba with one of the highest rates in the Western Hemisphere. Cuban children are being immunised with Soberana 2 and Soberana Plus, two domestically developed vaccines. Cuban scientists stressed that the Soberana vaccines use a technology similar to the one already in use in Cuba’s vaccines against other diseases. “This is not an RNA vaccine, with no history, being administered to children,” said Dr. Vicente Vérez, the lead developer of the vaccines. Schools in Cuba have been closed through most of the pandemic, and the high cost of internet access has made online learning impossible for most children. So far, 56 percent of Cuba’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, and 37 percent are fully vaccinated.  

 

 

Los Angeles schools mandate vaccines for students 12 and up (United States)

AP News reports that students age 12 and older in the Los Angeles public school system soon must be vaccinated to attend classes on campus under one of the toughest anti-COVID mandates enacted in the nation. Students who can’t show proof of vaccination won’t be permitted to have in-person learning following the end of winter break on Jan. 11 unless they have a medical or other exemption. The nation’s second-largest school district was the largest in the U.S. to issue such a mandate. Los Angeles Unified, which has 630,000 students, has moved more aggressively than most districts in enacting COVID-19 safety measures. It tests all students and employees every week, requires masking indoors and outdoors and has ordered employees to be vaccinated. The school district’s mandate could inspire similar actions in other cities, while likely sparking legal challenges from people opposed to vaccination, masking and other COVID-19 regulations. 

 

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