Boys step up to fight schoolyard abuse: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 15 May 2007: 7.
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Abstract
“When I was in primary school they would ask for money, take my personal stuff, it was probably because I had a funny name,” he said. “I don’t get bullied a lot now. In high school now, if you tell a teacher they take action. It makes me feel more safe, more secure and happier.”
Taumata Aukina, 17, said there was no bullying at Canterbury because the school was a caring one that emphasised living with truth and honour. “It is a good school to hang around. We are supposed to show respect, you have to be a role model to our young students,” he said. “Everyone takes that seriously.”
“That is embedded in the culture here,” she said. “We have a strong student mentoring program. Students work together well and have a strong voice in decision-making. The students themselves have done much to eradicate bullying from their ranks. They are the ones that have to make it happen.”
Full Text
JOHN Howard need look no further than his own alma mater — Canterbury Boys High School in Sydney’s southwest — for a lesson in how to turn around violence and bullying in the schoolyard.
Any incidents of even minor bullying are immediately dealt with, and support is provided to the perpetrator and the victim. Parents are also kept informed.
Expulsion, the punishment of last resort, has not had to be used this year, despite a school population of almost 500 adolescent boys from 32 different cultural backgrounds and from widely differing circumstances.
Principal Leslee Mitton said it would be ridiculous to claim there had been no bullying incidents at all because, just like every other school in the country, bullying remained an ongoing problem.
However, the culture of the school and the fact that any incidents were taken seriously and dealt with immediately had minimised conflict.
Basit Mosvi, 13, who is in Year 7, said he had been constantly bullied at primary school. He said the strong anti-bullying programs advertised in Canterbury Boys’ promotional material had been a big draw in picking the school.
“When I was in primary school they would ask for money, take my personal stuff, it was probably because I had a funny name,” he said. “I don’t get bullied a lot now. In high school now, if you tell a teacher they take action. It makes me feel more safe, more secure and happier.”
Taumata Aukina, 17, said there was no bullying at Canterbury because the school was a caring one that emphasised living with truth and honour. “It is a good school to hang around. We are supposed to show respect, you have to be a role model to our young students,” he said. “Everyone takes that seriously.”
Ms Mitton said that, following incidents requiring the school to address issues of racism, homophobia, sexism and bullying, it had instituted a classroom philosophy in the early 1990s of encouraging students to show respect to others and take responsibility for their own actions.
She said programs encouraged boys to reflect on what they had done and change their behaviour.
“That is embedded in the culture here,” she said. “We have a strong student mentoring program. Students work together well and have a strong voice in decision-making. The students themselves have done much to eradicate bullying from their ranks. They are the ones that have to make it happen.”
She said the school’s zero tolerance towards bullying and the students’ pride in the institution had worked to diminish schoolyard fights. “The students are very proud of what they call the Cantabrian way,” she said.
“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. In the classroom context, that means you have to keep your standards high, have really high expectations and assure the students aspire to them at all times. They have got to feel safe and comfortable.”