Parents from schools around Canberra have accused the department of failing to provide their children with a safe learning environment.

So far, 15 parents have banded together to seek legal advice on a class action, with more expressing interest in joining in.

They declined to be named in this report, saying they did not want their children identified.

But one mother one said her daughter had recently taken out a protection order against a fellow student at Canberra High School, after continual harassment and intimidation.

The Canberra Times reported late last month that the number of school-based protection orders taken out in 2008 was 40 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

''The more I talk about [a class action], the more people are in the same boat,'' the mother said.

She said her daughter had been victimised for the past 18 months, and school staff had told her the problem was out of their control ''like a bushfire''.

''I just want my kid to go to school from 9 to 3 without being hassled,'' she said.

''I know we don't live in a perfect world, I know kids are kids. But the level that [the bullies] have taken this to is just disgusting.''

The girl's grandfather said he blamed the department, but not the school itself. ''The poor principal, he's tearing his hair out ... he's getting no clear guidelines from the Education Department at all,'' he said.