I am a Home Education consultant for the Home Education Network and the story that Eco told of her child being bullied from the first day of high school is one that I would hear probably on an average of six times a week. It is a problem in all high schools rich or poor, private or independent and parents are fighting back. They refuse to sit back any longer and watch their child suffer. Home Education gives them the key to their childs’ life and happiness and they are accepting the challenge.
Lynne Kosky and the Bracks' government I hope you are listening. Bullying is a symptom of institutionalised schooling and always will be regardless of your well intentioned anti-bullying programs. Parents(your voters) are demanding change and a better life for their children. Home Education as an educational choice will continue to grow and may possibly be the education of the future. Don’t stand in its way

I have heard so many stories similar to your own Jolanda. It is frightening the abuses of power that go on in our school system. An earlier post stated that school was an unnatural institution, and that is so true. The high level of competitiveness on all levels, social and academic, creates an environment for bullies to flourish, whether they be children teachers or parents. Victims are rarely helped, and schools with a zero tolerance policy, sometimes have the worst bullying problems, as there is often a refusal to acknowledge issues. Sadly, as teachers, schools and administrators go back and forth with policies and programs, they forget the suffering of the victim, who is insignificant in their bureaucratic blinkered world.
I am glad home education exists as a viable option to many families that the system has failed. To those who feel that parents are unqualified for the role of teaching their children, many thousands of parents successful educate their children to university level, it is truly not that difficult in our information rich society.

There can be nothing more frustrating or frightening than not being able to gain the support of teachers when your child is at risk. I don't believe this happens everytime in every school but just once is one time too many.

What we need is to identify a procedure that can be followed by all parents who wish to report and resolve bullying behaviour. This should of course begin with individual teachers and schools but must provide avenues for complaint to an independent body that has some authority or influence. The OH&S ACt in each State requires employers (Dept of Ed, Private School and all school principals) to provide a safe environment for all who are involved with the workplace - inlcuding students. There are established procedures for reporting and resolving issues of bullying and penalties apply for a breach of the Act. Maybe we should be involving a Union - several are becoming serious about sorting out bullying in the workplace. It could be in everyones interest for a class action to be lodged by a group of parents of children who have been bullied. This would require a group of committed parents who have a very tight and well documented case getting together with a good lawyer. WorkCover in the appropriate State should be involved too. Does anyone know any funding bodies who could help?

Perhaps before getting this extreme though it would be wise to become involved in the school's P&C which has a great deal of influence. We could also try to gain the attention of media who might just be interested in highlighting the issues.

It is amazing what effect a lot of media attention and threat of penalties can do - especially if you can get local politicians involved too as I am sure there are votes to be won. It would be far more effective and widespread in the long term than homeschooling. The vast majority of parents to whom homeschooling is not a sensible alternative would be eternally grateful.

Boaz flippantly suggests that as home education grows, a home education network might take the place of the Ed Department. However there is a fundamental difference about home education which would prevent such an eventuality. The home education community is very diverse and covers families of different backgrounds, beliefs, politics and lifestyles. The very point of home educating is the ability to tailor the education to the real needs of one's children. There is no one-size-fits-all home education. There is no group which dictates the way families home educate. The education department wants to do bring us under their umbrella in order to dictate what we do. We want to retain the independance that allows us to find individual solutions rather than follow bureaucratic policies.

Bullying is not only a primary school problem. Our local high school has a lock out policy for the library at break times. Anyone who wants to be safe goes straight to the library.

The feedback on this article suggests that there are two effective ways to deal with bullying in schools. One is to out-bully the bullies by means of physical punishment/threat of the same or withdrawal of privaleges/threat of the same. Schools are prohibited from physically punishing children or threatening to do so. The withdrawal of privaleges only works as long as one has the power to take something away from a child that they want.

One has to ask whether out bullying someone actually teaches them that bullying is wrong or just teaches them that the more powerful figure is a more effective bully.

The other method is through acceptance of people's differences and encouraging their self-actualisation. This solves the problem from both directions by promoting understanding between children who have been bullied and those that have bullied.

Home education amply allows for this second option.

Sajo. I wrote to the P & C in Sydney, and they responded with “although we appreciate your concerns, it is beyond the scope of the P & C”. I also tried to get help from other organizations, some said that they did not get involved in individual cases! Others said it was outside their jurisdiction and/or that they did not have enough resources and I even had Whistleblowers Australia tell me not to bother going to a Solicitor as they would just take my money and that you can’t win no matter what evidence you have. A Minister told me that too. The media didn't want to know about it.

My family have sought legal advice in relation to our complaints and we have recently had a hearing at the ADT in relation to documents that the Department is withholding in respect of allegations of manipulation of test scores and misconduct in order to exclude my children from certain schools and in order to neglect them, discredit them and publicly humiliate them. My family have already spent over $25,000.00 just trying to be afforded Procedural fairness and protection and we have had to do it without any support as the community turned their back on my children and family for fear of also being targeted.

That is a very sick system. There are policies in place that protects those employed by the Public Service from having to answer to allegations of misconduct. I have had a number of Solicitors tell me that my family would have no trouble proving negligence but that the system would drag it on for so long that it would financially ruin us and any compensation that we may be entitled to for the suffering that has been caused will be eaten up by Solicitors costs and we could loose our home regardless.

I have told the system that they might get away with what they are doing, but they are not going to cover it up. I will not teach my children to accept being treated like pieces of dirt! Our children deserve better.

Susie Blackmore - erudite post.

Out-bullying the bully simply furthers violence and does not teach any alternative behaviour.

Of course negotiation is more difficult - to find a win-win solution is very tricky. However if a bully learns to compromise and negotiate rather than dominate the benefits are obvious, otherwise they just take their standover tactics into the workforce and the cycle continues.

I agree that home education can remedy this, but it is far from the whole solution.

I also agree that the Brack's government should support home schooling and continue to support school programs as well - not everyone can home-school. Public schools need to remain viable.