It's clear there is a problem with violence in some Canberra schools.
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It's also clear that some parts of the education sector are in denial about this problem.
How else to interpret the declaration, by the ACT Principals Association, that "ACT public schools are safe places in which to learn and work, where negative instances are rare"?
There were harrowing accounts of children being abused by other students, with one being told by a principal to be more resilient.
The statement was part of a submission by the association to an ACT inquiry into school violence. The inquiry, by a joint standing committee, was already something of a compromise; back in February, revelations in The Canberra Times that some students were being left in harms' way after attacks sparked calls from parents and the opposition for an expert-led inquiry into the handling of violence in schools.
Instead, the ACT government referred the matter to a joint standing committee, on the condition it seal any evidence that could identify a person or a school. After a number of hearings behind closed doors, most submissions to the inquiry have now been made public.
Although some parents praised the efforts of individual teachers, who they said often appeared powerless and under-resourced, others detailed repeated broken promises made by schools or officials that their children would be safe. There were harrowing accounts of children being abused by other students, with one being told by a principal to be more resilient. Several families had been forced to move their children to other schools when no action was taken; one even had to move their child interstate.
In its submission, the independent teachers' union said violence appeared to be on the rise in schools, but that teachers often feared career repercussions if they intervened. The ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations, for its part, acknowledged that schools worked hard to keep people safe but stressed better strategies and more resources were needed.
The council said families felt let down or not listened to, and there was a clear need for improved support for those experiencing trauma. But it's the submissions by parents that are the most harrowing, with accounts of anxious and suicidal young people, terrified to go to school, with teachers seemingly able to do nothing.
Principals, meanwhile, seem to see no entrenched problems in how Canberra's schools deal with violence, other than observing "the impact of digital technology on children". The ACT Principals Association has maintained that concern was to be expected from Canberra's "concerned and involved community" - this was after all the same community with the nation's highest participation rate in the marriage equality vote.
"Raising responsible and respectful young people is a task shared by parents, schools and communities together; it is not always easy, but a more balanced and realistic view should be elevated in the public debate," says the submission, calling further for a "collective responsibility" for dealing with unacceptable behaviour in schools. Aside from the fact that the marriage equality vote has little, if nothing, to do with violence in schools, this response seems astonishingly tone deaf, and at odds with the scenarios described by parents and teachers.
In other words, nothing to see here. What hope can we have this is the response from ACT school principals?