Family feud winds up in Parliament

[Sunshine Profile]

A Palmerston couple says Northern Territory police have advised against sending their son to school because he could be bashed by bullies for a second time.

The 14-year-old Palmerston High School student suffered a broken tooth in a school yard beating several weeks ago, and when he returned to school he was threatened again.

The family's dog has also been stabbed in the face as part of the feud.

The child's father, Peter Kilgour, says the Government's out of touch on youth violence.

"To Marion Scrymgour, the Education Minister, if she thinks there's no gang mentality or no gang culture at Palmerston High School, she can come and walk in my shoes for two or three weeks, because I think she'd find it a completely different story."

But the Chief Minister says the complaint is an ploy by the Opposition to score cheap political points.

Paul Henderson says he has been advised the case is a long-running family feud and that police are trying to help the parties reconcile.

"I don't know what the motivation of (Opposition Leader) Terry Mills is today, to actually parade this family and their problems out before the media.

"Bullying in schools is not acceptable. We do have a safe schools policy in place and we've had a debate in Parliament over the past two days in and around suspensions from schools."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/12/2272991.htm

[FairDinkum Profile]

Are certain ethnicities involved?

Did the newspapers cover that angle?

[Sunshine Profile]

As far as I know Its a white fella family who is the target - perpetrators
now thats unknown the press is of course politically correct why would they mention the race>>??? ( sacastic cynicism intended!)

[FairDinkum Profile]

Anecdotal stories I have heard suggest that Aborigines and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately involved in bullying cases as the perpetrators.

I have no statistical evidence to confirm this (I doubt if the education would want to keep bullying statistics at all, let alone by ethnicity/race), but I have heard too many stories of this kind to ignore the evidence.

[forep Profile]

Races that are over represented in social problems like Islanders and Aborigines for sure will more likely be bullies.