Qld’s Anti Bullying Initiative Welcomed by Student Well-Being Expert

The Queensland government’s antibullying initiative is multi-contextual and multi-modal including the decision to set up Rapid Support Squads to tackle bullying in the state’s schools.

The squads will target bullying hotspots in the state’s schools and respond to those that have a critical incident and highlight ‘best practice’ if the initiative provides on-going support for the school community.

Additional chaplains and specialist staff if trained in anti-bullying prevention will provide schools with permanent on the ground support as part of the initiative.

The inclusion of an anti-bullying stakeholder reference group is to be applauded given its role in providing critical advice, guiding future initiatives, and co-designing Qld’s Anti-Bullying campaign that is being developed.

Queensland parents and carers will also have access to a new seven-day crisis support hotline for free and confidential counselling.

Professor Emeritus Phillip Slee at the School of Education Flinders University  says, “The rapid support squad comprising of senior guidance officers sends a strong message to the community that bullying is unacceptable.

“Developing a stake-holder reference group to co-design a forthcoming anti-bullying campaign is to be applauded if it includes a significant element of student and community voice.

“This aligns with important elements of the world-leading Australian Wellbeing Framework. Capacity building to prevent bullying must not only involve parents and students but must include ancillary staff such as bus drivers and groundskeepers.

“Moreover, the bullying issues faced by neuro-diverse students absolutely must be recognised and any failure in a state or territory initiative to address this fact will be seen as a serious shortcoming.”

In South Australia an Autism Inclusion Teacher (AIT) has been appointed in every public school with primary school students and a trial is commencing in in secondary schools.
Australian school students face the second highest level of bullying among 24 OECD countries. In all between 1:5 -1:6 students report being bullied once a week or more often across states and territories.

A 2021 report by Jadambaa and colleagues estimated that bullying had cost the Australian economy millions of dollars constituting eight per cent of the Australian mental health expenditure.

“Any strengths -based initiative to address bullying is to be applauded. Queensland and Australia are leading the way in addressing the issue of school bullying.

“The Australian Department of Education has already established the Student Wellbeing Hub website to support schools in addressing bullying and also set up the Bullying No Way National Week of Action, which will be run from August 11 -15 this year.

“However, there is almost a complete lack of knowledge in the broader community regarding these Federal resources.

“A national initiative needs to be developed to address school bullying which is sensitive to local community circumstances  and which prioritises  prevention and not simply reaction  to bullying incidents."