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Bad Apple Bullies
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Tuesday July 1, 2008
Retired teacher Lynda Beck of Rozelle wrote a Letter to the Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.
She retired one year ago.
The Sydney Morning Herald had reported that parents did not generally perceive that their children had serious conduct problems.
But teachers do.
In Lynda Beck's experience, children are now more disruptive and violent than they were a generation ago.
But modern parents do not acknowledge this, due to the cult of preciousness and encouragement of egocentricity that has evolved.
If a child was disobedient or violent in the 1970's and 80's, generally a discussion with the parents would result in a workable solution.
Now the parents frequently inform the teacher that the child's misbehaviour is someone else's fault.
Or that the teacher is picking on them.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
I taught in Sydney primary schools during the 70's and 80's.
Children simply were not disruptive and violent in those days.
I began teaching in Queensland at about the time that the cane was banned in schools.
And the children's behaviour rapidly deteriorated.
Every year there seemed to be more and more children in each class with significant behavioural problems.
I observed that Queensland school principals were often reluctant to contact parents and tell them the truth about their children.
The principals seemed to be afraid that the parents would complain about them.
Thursday June 19, 2008
Russel Riley, Thornlie, describes some of the major incidents during the past few years at his Perth primary school.
His school was one of the first in Western Australia to experience a police lock-down and search of the grounds by armed TRG with dogs.
The lock-down lasted from 9am to 12.30pm.
During that three and a half hours, teachers, staff and students were all locked in the classrooms together with no access to toilets.
Two armed parents began fighting over a carpark space at the end of a school day, while students were trying to get home safely.
Three staff were held hostage in the principal's office by a recently released prisoner who was armed.
A parent was not happy because their child had been stopped from fighting with another student.
So the parent went to a staff member's house at the weekend and began making threats and throwing stones and gum nuts.
Dwight Lemke, Lecturer in management, School of Business, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, wrote a letter to the editor of The Australian.
... A large proportion, if not a majority, of my students canot write a clear, concise and grammatically correct paragraph to save their lives. Those of us who care about the quality of the students we send out into the world are therefore compelled to correct their English so that they have a last chance to learn to communicate well.
This is not something we should be doing at university. Students are supposed to graduate from high school with a basic knowledge of maths, English, science and social studies.
Why isn't it happening?
Friday June 6, 2008
Bob Wilkinson of Lions Street, Malanda, wrote to The Cairns Post.
He said that the system fails to support teachers.
Teachers teach their students "good manners" and they expect good manners, respect and obedience from their students.
But they are not allowed to enforce this teaching.
Anytime they try to enforce their expectations, there is some bureaucracy to thwart their efforts.
In any school, there are phone numbers for students to ring if they feel wronged by some adult.
But there are no phone numbers for teachers (or parents, etc.) to ring for help in dealing with unruly, recalcitrant children.
In fact, most of the students using these help phone numbers are the ones causing the trouble, who ring with invented stories and are believed.
Nor is there any help from the authorities "in charge".
They either don't want to know or their hands are tied.
Bob said that when he taught in the ghettos of industrial England in the 1970-80's, it was more pleasant than teaching in many Queensland schools today.
The Webmaster of Bad Apple Bullies comments:
I also taught in the heartland of industrial England during 1969-1973.
I agree with Bob.
But when I commented to an inexperienced acting deputy principal that behaviour was far, far better in the early days of my teaching career, she decided that I had to be put into a Diminished Workplace Performance Program because "we want to change the way that Annie is thinking".
So I hope that Bob has retired, or he will almost certainly be put into a punishment program for telling the truth about the lack of support for teachers in Queensland schools.
It is so much easier to punish the teachers for talking about the behaviour problems than to deal with the children's behaviour.
Friday 30 May 2008
A former South Australian teacher has been awarded a $390,000 damages payout for excessive workload and bullying.
The South Australia Supreme Court found that the teacher had been overworked and was the victim of bullying and victimisation.
The male teacher had been asked to take on extra, unpaid duties whilst working as a teacher at Mt Barker High School and Brighton Secondary School.
He had gone on sick leave in 2001.
He was eventually dismissed.
Justice Tim Anderson found that the South Australia Education Department should have foreseen that the extra workload, even undertaken willingly, would have caused stress.
He awarded $392,850 in damages for loss of past and future earnings as well as loss of reputation and dignity.
Workplace OHS
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
06:03pm
This morning a teacher working at the Umbakumba School on Groote Island was threatened by a man wielding an axe, spears and a bow and 12 arrows.
Groote Island is a remote Aboriginal community in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Northern Territory),
The man was allegedly looking for a relative at the Umbakumba School on Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, at about 8am (CST) today.
Police said the man threatened the teacher with the axe when he was asked to leave the school.
The man then damaged a school building with an axe.
Community members seized the weapons and disarmed the man.
He ran off into the bush before police arrived.
He remains at large despite police efforts to locate him.
Earlier this month, two teachers at Umbakumba School were threatened by a young man wielding a lump of concrete and a wooden log.
The 18-year-old had an altercation with his wife inside the school grounds before he allegedly became agitated and approached a classroom full of students.
Monday April 28, 2008
A parent at the school was known to have a short fuse and to indulge in angry rants.
Ms Sharkey had managed to calm her down before.
But in 2006 the mother was out of control.
Ms Sharkey had suspended her son because he had arrived at school one day with baseball bats,
Two other boys were with him, neither of whom were pupils at the school.
They were planning to settle a score with another student.
"After screaming and carrying on at me, she (the mother) grabbed me by the top of the arm and around my neck with the other hand and threw me on the ground," Ms Sharkey recalls. "I didn't know what was happening,"
Fortunately the assistant principal, who was working in his nearby office, heard the escalation of the swearing and abuse.
He was able to intervene.
The physical injuries that Ms Sharkey suffered during the assault, and the mental and emotional effects of the assault, have affected Ms Sharkey's health.
She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and she is unlikely to return to work.
She is shocked by the situation in which she now finds herself.
She had never thought about retiring or resigning from her work.
Ms Sharkey says that schools are too exposed.
She wants to see security procedures developed to protect staff and students.
"Schools are very much open slather to anybody who wants to create a fuss," she says.
" ... I am so tired of hearing about teachers being under the scrutiny of bullying in schools. For goodness sake, let's put the other side of the story out there."
Brian Burgess, president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, described an incident at Eumemmerring College which prompted an emergency lockdown at the school.
A male parent was rampaging through the school yard, trying to find a teacher.
The parent thought the teacher had abused his son.
The teacher concerned was pregnant.
The student concerned was a difficult year 9 student who had told his father a pack of lies.
The father had over-reacted.
Mary Bluett, president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union, described a recent incident.
A father walked into a classroom and abused a teacher in front of 27 grade 2 students.
He then turned to the students and told them that their teacher was a cr*p teacher and that they should tell their parents.
Then he stormed out.
Saturday April 19, 2008
Robert Bartholomew , an American sociology professor, has lived in Australia for 13 years.
He has spent several years working as a teacher in remote schools.
He was working as a teacher in Ali Curong (also called Alekarenge), 170km south of Tennant Creek and on the edge of the Tanami desert in the Northern Territory.
He "blew the whistle" on the Northern Territory's crumbling education system.
He said that walking into the Alekarenge School was like entering the third world.
Conditions at the Alekarenge school are so bad that only one of the six teachers who statrted work at the school in January 2008 have made it through to Term 2.
A spokesman for the Northern Territory Education Department said four teachers, not five, had left the school: two had taken up promotional positions, one was on maternity leave and one was following her partner to his new job in a different community.
In 2005 a report had identified an asbestos risk to children and staff both inside the school and in the playground.
The report alarmed the community.
Dr Bartholomew claims that the Education Department ignored the asbestos report.
The Education Department claim that this is untrue, and that all of the recommendations of the report had been implemented.
Dr Bartholomew said that he raised his concern about education and safety standards within the school for weeks. "I was told my standards were too high," he said. Then the department told him he was going be transferred to a different school. But, despite having successful interviews at other schools, he has not been able to get another job as a teacher. Dr Bartholomew believes that he has been "blackballed" by the department. He is now technically an illegal immigrant. Former colleagues of Dr Bartholomew, including school principals, spoke of him as a model teacher. The Australian Education Union's Northern Territory branch secretary, Adam Lampe, said that Dr Bartholomew had been treated with contempt. This week, Northern Territory Education Minister Marion Scrymgour admitted that remote schools were in crisis. 17 April, 2008 Andrew Massey, a teacher in England, has been paid "substantial" compensation because his job ruined his health. Mr Massey, 54, was teaching design and technology at New College in Leicester in 2004. He has been unable to work since he became sick from stress. He took legal action against Leicester City Council and was offered an undisclosed but substantial out-of-court settlement. Leicester City Council declined to comment to the BBC on the case. Mr Massey told the BBC; "It was grim. I was late for lessons because I was dealing with fights and other incidents in corridors." Mr Massey said that balconies in the school building were dangerous places because teachers and students could be spat on, or they could have books dropped on them from the balcony. Students would set fire to another child's hair. One morning there were 13 false fire alarms at the school. "We were told steps would be taken, but nothing effective ever happened." Mr Massey said. Mr Massey said that he felt angry because he had been "reduced to what I am, that I should have lost so many of the good qualities that I had." "I can't do rapid speech, my whole body hurts with the determination to get words out. I have become so much more difficult to live with." The National Union of Teachers (NUT) supported Mr Massey. When did you last read about the Queensland Teachers' Union supporting a bullied teacher? Peter Flack is assistant secretary of the NUT's Leicester branch. He said: "This problem is certainly getting worse. The pressures are far greater." Leicestershire city council does not know exactly how many of its teachers are affected by stress. The BBC has obtained figures under the Freedom of Information Act that show that in Leicester more than 2,500 teaching days were lost last year because of stress among 65 staff members. But the NUT believes that these figures do not show the full extent of the problem, because many teachers do not like to admit that they are sufering from stress. "The children were told to go into "lockdown procedure" and so they went to whatever lockdown classroom they're meant to be in and they go through the roll call to make sure their groups are there at which point these people started to smash windows." The students were told to get under tables while the youths were smashing windows. "The teachers were actually (barricading) the door for these guys which is really way above the call of duty, which is really good," the parent said. "They showed the parents that they put their life on the line for the kids." Friday April 4, 2008 12:18pm Maree Anne McCormack, aged 54, was employed as a textiles, health and art teacher at Patterson River Secondary College, at Carrum in Melbourne, from February 1994. Ms McCormack became anxious and stressed after a number of confrontations with students. Ms McCormack was abused "in a particularly nasty fashion" in mid-2005 by a male student. Ms McCormack told her doctor about the difficulties she faced in her job and about a lack of support from her employer. In March 2006 she was working in a portable classroom with no way of contacting the office. A female student accused Ms McCormack of kicking her. Then the student withdrew the allegation. But the principal made a remark that seemed to indicate a lack of support for MsMcCormack. The situation affected Ms McCormack's health. Workcover rejected her claim for compensation. But Melbourne County Court Judge Bowman ruled that there was overwhelming evidence that Ms McCormack had suffered an injury at work and that she should receive compensation. A female teacher, who did not want to be named, came forward to highlight serious safety issues facing teachers who are working in the Torres Strait Islands. She said that her department accommodation in the Torres Straits was not secure. An alleged attacker easily broke through a door, threatening to sexually assault her. She fought him off and screamed, causing him to flee. Wanting to call her parents but without a reliable phone in her house, the teacher ran to the school principal's house. The principal advised her to wait until she settled down the next day before calling. She was also told not to leave the island on the next barge in three days because she might not get another teaching job. Police came three days later but did not arrest and charge the man until six weeks after the alleged assault, she said. On the night the man was arrested, his friends allegedly harassed the teacher, banging on her window and doors. After this incident she began sleeping with a knife under her bed and a mallet next to her pillow. She left the island soon after. She asked the Education Department's regional office if they were aware of the incident. A spokesman said the department was aware but did not call the teacher unless it was a life and death situation. 10:38
Monday April 7, 2008
A male teacher was hit over the head as he tried to stop five teenagers armed with baseball bats and a machete rampaging through Merrylands High School at 8.50am (AEST) today, police said.
The teacher was taken to hospital with bruising to the back of his head while trying to restrain one of the youths, the Ambulance Service of NSW said.
18 students were injured in the attack, most with cuts and abrasions from broken glass, although one girl was taken to hospital with a swollen cheek after allegedly being assaulted by one of the teenagers.
One student was taken to Westmead Children's Hospital with a facial injury.
Police said five youths stormed an assembly in an outdoor quadrangle, brandishing baseball bats and a machete, prompting teachers to "lock down" the school.
Students were locked inside their classrooms for safety.
Det-Insp Stewart said he was stunned by the brazenness of the incident.
"It beggars belief ... ," he said.
The unnamed mother of a Year 12 student praised the actions of teachers who put their lives on the line to protect students at Merrylands High School during the attack.
School attack may have been revenge, Simon Kirby, Karen Davis and Danny Rose, AAP, The Courier-Mail: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23497871-5003402,00.html
Teachers 'put lives on the line', AAP, The Courier-Mail: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23497323-5003402,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23483351-5003402,00.html
Harassed teacher wins compo, Michelle Draper, AAP: The Courier-Mail:
Friday 21 March, 2008
11:00pm
Teacher slept beside knife, Michael Wray, The Courier-Mail: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,%2023413060-3102,00.html
Thursday 20 March 2008
Working in these areas is a dangerous affair.
When I was in NQ recently I caught up with a family friend I hadn't seen for ages.
After he graduated from teacher training, he put his hand up to teach in a certain remote area.
As time went on, break-ins to his place of residence became more and more frequent and then started occuring at night when he was out.
It got to the point he was worried for his safety, especially at night when he might be asleep.
He asked for a transfer but, guess what, no one else wants to work in the area - I wonder why?
His only way out was to quit.
The damage has been done though, as the young man has suffered close to a nervous breakdown and, of course, there is no assistance coming from his former employer. ...
Posted by: Vince
Comment 49 of 129
Tuesday 18 March 2008
12:00am
Dance teacher Despina Rosales claims she was "punched, kicked, spat at and hit repeatedly" by up to seven female students while trying to drive out of the carpark of Randwick Girls High School in Sydney's east.
One of the students accused Ms Rosales, 35, of driving over her foot.
But it was Ms Rosales who required medical treatment at Prince of Wales Hospital for a "serious blow to the right side of her head".
One lunchtime at a western Sydney high school a male Year 7 student was playing tackle football in the playground with his friends.
The female teacher on duty asked the boys to stop tackling because it was against school rules.
They ignored her so she confiscated their football.
After negotiations the students agreed to stop tackling and the teacher handed the ball back to them.
But the Year 7 boy confronted the teacher and held a replica automatic pistol to her head for "about one minute".
At a regional high school in southwest NSW a Year 9 male student left his seat and creept up on the teacher.
He placed a toy gun against her head and pulled the trigger.
Then he ran into other classes, hurling abuse and waving the gun around.
A teacher's aide also had the weapon placed against her head and the trigger pulled.
The father of a disturbed Year 7 boy became aggressive during a meeting at a secondary school on the NSW Central Coast.
He pulled out a "mini replica pistol" and pointed it at the school counsellor's face.
At a special school on the North Coast of NSW a 14-year-old student threw 15 punches at the teacher trying to restrain him.
Three or four punches connected with the teacher's face and head.
"Special needs" teachers seem to be particularly vulnerable to being attacked at work, injured and driven into an impoverished early retirement.
You need to consider this possibilty very, very carefully if you feel 'called' to work with 'special needs' children.
In southwest Sydney a Year 9 boy sprayed a can of deodorant into a teacher's mouth with such force that it caused his nose to bleed.
A man reports that his teacher partner was hit with a lump of concrete that was thrown at her while she was writing on the blackboard.
A NSW primary school teacher was threatened with assault by an intoxicated mother.
Her husband, a police officer, forced the reluctant principal to ban the parent.
"At least I can protect myself when dealing with violent persons, however these teachers cannot," he says.
"It is disgraceful situation and is getting out of hand and the Education Department should hang its head in shame.
"The slap on the wrist approach has not worked in the past 15 years and it is about time some changes were made to make children and their parents accountable for their crimes."
Monday 17 March 2008
Former NSW Central Coast teacher Richard Neville is one of many who has left the profession out of fear for their safety.
He ended his 12-year career as a high school teacher after two students attacked him with scissors and a lump of wood.
Now a fireman, Mt Neville said he found the job "safer than teaching".
"The boy who came at me with the pair of scissors and the one who took the swing at me with a lump of wood were 13 year olds," Mr Neville said.
Department of Education and Training incident reports show teachers are regularly threatened with firearms or other weapons - from broken bottles to knives - by students, parents or intruders.
The issue tops the list of teachers' concerns in secondary schools (more than 65 per cent).
Thursday 6 March 2008
Dr David Solomon AM, Chair,
FOI Independent Review Panel.
GPO Box 5236 Brisbane
The Queensland public service promotion system is psychopath-friendly.
Friday February 22, 2008
P. McGowan of Thornlie wrote a Letter to the Editor of The West Australian (The letter was also quoted on the PLATOWA website) -
"I am in my 50s and have been a teacher for more than half my life.
I have always had a sense of pride in my chosen profession and my ability to do a good job.
I feel that I have been a positive influence in the lives of the many children I have taught.
"I still enjoy the craft of teaching but now I find myself feeling that I would like to pull the pin on my career.
I am unable to do this because of my personal circumstances; in fact, I will need to continue working for a significant number of years.
I will continue to do my utmost to do the best job that I am capable of. The (job) is too important to do otherwise.
"I now find myself heading into the last phase of my career feeling undervalued, overworked, frustrated and depressed.
Sadly, I suspect that I may be voicing the feelings of many of my mature-age peers. ...
"The workload has more than doubled in the course of my career, actual teaching seeming to have become secondary to the continually increasing demands on teachers to produce data, evidence and assessment facts and figures.
These massive and growing demands for documentation, although having a place, rob teachers of time which could be better spent devising effective, interesting and even innovative ways by which they could be optimising the learning opportunities of the children in their classrooms.
"Those who know and live with teachers bemoan widely-held negative attitudes about our "short" working days, long holidays and "high" salaries; they are often our only advocates.
Tuesday, February 5 2008
NSW Kindergarten teacher (discussed in a series of emails) -
Monday, February 4 2008
John Daicopoulos, a four-year honours (physics) graduate with a second degree specialising in physics education, wrote an On Line Opinion Article:
Having happily taught physics for 17 years in two countries he has recently opted to leave the profession because -
A physics graduate with hopes of becoming a teacher has no ability to adjust or amend the collective teacher working conditions that govern education.
This lack of negotiating power (or even permission) is perpetuated by union collective agreements (negotiated in good-faith by all stake-holders).
What is the motivation to gaining a full honours degree in physics then learning to teach, when you can simply enter a teacher training program learning some physics along the way?
And Western Australia is toying with the idea of allowing lower than normal TEE scores for acceptance into teacher training programs and the dilution of academic skills and qualifications continues.
What value should we place on a full honours degree qualification?
Great value.
Assuming one decides to give-it-a-go entering the profession fully qualified with a contract negotiated in good faith, what are the conditions that will affect the physics-teacher’s level of work satisfaction?
Outside of the same demands placed on all teachers, it will most likely be the physics (and science) curriculum.
Today’s physics curriculum (or syllabus if you prefer) has become entrenched with an emphasis overly based on teaching engineering, or on entertaining students with so-called hands-on activities.
With an incessant compulsion for making physics practical, hands-on or worse yet, fun, the educational establishment has watered down physics to the point that it is of little interest to the physicists who teach it.
Although physics can (and should) be applied, it is a fundamental science that must be taught promoting scientific ideals.
Building bridges of spaghetti is not enough.
If the very calibre of teacher we desire to teach difficult and technical subjects like physics and mathematics is choosing not to teach, then many features of education need to change before they choose otherwise. The compulsion to change ought to rest within the system.
This is an interesting article that raises quite a few new issues.
It is written by an intelligent teacher - a species that may soon become extinct.
John also writes about the endless paperwork necessary to gain teacher registration in Queensland.
What John may not realise is how easily his qualifications, his career and his health can be destroyed in Queensland with malicious gossip and a few scribbles on sticky-notes.
A full copy of the article can be found at -
Tuesday, January 15 2008
Louise Boyle of Toowoomba, Queensland, wrote a letter to the Editor of The Australian.
She recently retrained as a mature-age student in primary education.
But she has discovered that there are many obstacles to gaining permanent employment in the state system.
There is a strict requirement that new teachers do country service for a number of years.
Louise can't leave her family.
So she can only do supply and contract work.
It is soul-destroying to always be teaching someone else's class.
Louise has been advised by the local QTU representative that there are approximately 5000 teachers without a permanent position.
In the 90's, older teachers were persuaded to change to a new superannuation system.
So now these older teachers need to work for longer.
They worry that they have not got enough money for their retirement.
Louise has recently been advised that Education Queensland plans to base permanent teachers in primary schools.
Presumably these are teachers who have completed their country service and who have requested a transfer to a "better" area.
These permanent teachers will be given the supply and contract work.
So Louise has decided to seek employment elsewhere.
She has no job and a $15,000 HECS bill to pay.
She agrees with Kevin Donnelly that her teaching qualifications are inadequate, in particular for the teaching of literacy.
So she is an unsatisfied customer of the university system.
And a casualty of a dysfunctional state education system.
Friday 21 December, 2007
Ray Chambers, 52, teacher in western Queensland, claims that short-term teaching contracts are cynically designed to save money.
Ray claims that the contracts are designed to avoid paying teachers holiday entitlements.
Ray said that he recently returned to teaching after a 17-year break.
But he is now looking for other work because he has become disillusioned with the Queensland government's treatment of teachers.
Ray has taken a series of teaching contracts in western Queensland since 2005.
He hoped that his service in rural communities would eventully be recognised with a permanent position.
But he has noticed that all of the contracts that teachers are on end before the school year finishes.
Nobody gets a contract right up to the end of the year.
And that this saves the Queensland government from paying eight or ten weeks wages.
Ray says that this is not a fair system.
Wednesday December 12, 2007
Zakarie Sloan of East Brunswick wrote a letter to the Editor of the Age.
His wife is a teacher.
He is angered and disgusted by the way that his wife has been treated.
She has worked hard for three years.
Her pay has been poor, but they put up with that.
But now she has been effectively sacked.
She will have no holiday pay and she will have no maternity leave (she is pregnant).
She was not sacked because she was performing poorly.
She has worked hard and performed beyond the expected level of commitment.
She was sacked because she was on a contract.
How many people have to re-apply for their jobs every two or three years?
Wednesday December 5, 2007
Michael Griggs of Lidcombe, NSW wrote a letter to the editor of The Australian:
He has taught high school for more than 30 years.
During that time his salary has been eroded, his conditions of work undermined, and his time wasted by "one idiotic panacea after another" emanating from politicians, university academics, journalists, greasy-pole-climbing principals and well-meaning parents, all of whom knew "diddly-squat" about teaching and learning.
Syllabuses changed almost as often as he changed his shirt.
Nobody ever checked to see if any of these "idiotic panaceas" were actually doing any good.
Monday December 3, 2007
Ex-teacher R.J. Burns emailed The Courier-Mail :
I walked away from a 20-year teaching career that I loved due to undisciplined students who have no respect, are openly arrogant and receive no serious consequences for their behaviour.
I became tired of explaining to parents that their child behaves like a brat at school.
When you try to convince them that their son / daughter really is a little monster in the classroom, you then have to defend your own teaching style, classroom management and even your personality.
Parents - wake up and start teaching your children what respect really means.
And show some yourself when dealing with teachers.
I will never return to secondary teaching as I can only see this problem getting worse.
Friday November 30, 2007
"NSW Ex-teacher" emailed The ABC:
He got out of the NSW system the day he turned 55.
He doesn't get much in the way of superannuation but he is a lot healthier and a lot happier.
At his last school, the principal would quite openly come to work and tell her Deputy that she was there to "kick arse" amongst the staff.
Which she would do.
This particular school was considered to be the most difficult in the region, if not the state.
The result was a toxic environment where there were high levels of staff sick leave and stress leave.
How did this person get to be a principal?
Why was nothing done about this person?
The problem is the spineless bureaucrats in the Education Department.
But teachers are not only being bullied by other employees.
When teachers' cars are vandalised, their houses damaged, their personal safety threatened by violent teengaers and parents on a daily basis in NSW, then there is something very, very wrong.
The sad thing is that teachers are now so used to the bullying from all quarters, the threats, the intimidation and the high stress levels that it all seems "normal".
Baby boomer teachers like him are leaving in droves.
"We could have stayed on, but why bother? It's not worth your health or your sanity. Most of us came into the job with the best of intentions, but most of us leave with a bitter taste in our mouths."
Every day is a good day now that he doesn't have to go to school.
MEDIA RELEASE : WEDNESDAY 7 NOVEMBER, 2007
Queensland Teachers Easily Bullied Out of Work.
Ban Bullying at Work Day will be celebrated in England on Wednesday 7 November. What will we celebrate in Queensland?
In schools and District Offices all over Queensland, Education Queensland administrators can quietly celebrate how very easy it is to bully Queensland teachers into ill health and out of work.
My advice to any Queensland teacher who is dealing with workplace bullying would be - go directly to a solicitor as soon as the bullying begins.
The Education Queensland "official processes" are utterly dysfunctional and your health and your career can easily be destroyed in a couple of days with malicious gossip and sticky-notes.
On 23 June 2002 I met Anna Bligh, Minister of Education, and Jim Varghese, Director-General of Education.
I told them that the Queensland Teachers Union had advised me that there was systemic abuse of the Diminished Workplace Performance Process (now called the Managing Unsatisfactory Performance Process).
And that, when a Queensland teacher was bullied at work, the union's only advice was that there was no hope of justice and to "accept the things you cannot change".
Anna Bligh already seemed to know more about the situation than I did -
On 3 November 2000 I was working as a specialist teacher in a Queensland state school.
I asked the acting principal to support me in saying that too many children were missing from the Grade 7 classrooms.
Unsupervised groups of Grade 7 children were roaming about the school, disrupting other classes.
The acting principal advised me to discuss the situation at a staff meeting.
She put it on the white-board agenda for discussion at the next staff meeting.
But, at the start of the staff meeting, the acting principal made certain statements concerning me to the staff.