Page 143 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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MR PARTON: Minister, what plans are in place at this primary school for students who are afraid to use the bathroom as a consequence of the aforementioned behaviours?
MS BERRY: In this particular circumstance that Mr Parton is referring to, I am not aware—is it the Theodore primary one that you are talking about?
Mr Parton: Yes.
MS BERRY: Okay. There have been some incidents at Theodore primary. It has been a terrible thing, as I said, for those parents. I understand and absolutely sympathise with them. A child should not be going to school fearful and be fearful when they are at school. There are processes in place. There are plans that the school should be implementing to ensure that children are safe at school.
Mrs Jones: What are they?
MS BERRY: I can provide that information, amongst all the other processes that I have talked about: positive behaviours for learning, engaging schools framework, safe and supportive schools, as well as codes of conduct. All of that is available.
Mrs Jones: But what do they do?
MS BERRY: We are dealing with humans. It can be difficult. I am not excusing the behaviour at all, and I am not excusing the fact that this child was scared. I am saying that in this particular circumstance it was not dealt with in a very good way. There were some issues, which I am still getting to the bottom of, around communication and the implementation of those processes. I will continue to do that, because schools should be safe places for every child; they absolutely should be.
At this school, we will work through it. We now also have to work on how we can make sure that this school can recover from this story being dragged around. That is also at the front of my mind. (Time expired.)
MS LEE: Minister, what have you personally done, or what are you doing, aside from getting assurances from the director-general, to reassure parents at that school that their children are safe?
MS BERRY: The first thing that I have to do is have some faith in the teaching profession at that school and give them the chance to get things back on track with proper supports around them. I think that is the first thing.
I have been having, and my office has been having, daily briefings from the Education Directorate. The school community is having a meeting this week to discuss the issues and the processes in place to assure parents that the school is a safe place for their children and that the directorate and the school community will work together to ensure that it is a positive and safe place to learn.
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