Summary Of Bullying By Wendy Goff
In this article, Wendy Goff discusses the effects of cyber bullying in relations to a school's responsibility of care. Goff examines the impact of cyber bullying through an increasingly common situation, it becomes apparent that the strategies for Australian schools in maintaining their duty of care may be unclear and uncommunicated. In Australia the legal frameworks regarding bullying are diverse, this is because of the federal nature of law, this diversity is accentuated from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Goff discusses the ‘Crimes Act 1958 Section 21A’, talks about the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD). She also discusses the Student Codes of Conduct (SCC), the development of state schools in Victoria and how SCC supports the notion that bullying behaviour in schools should be dealt with as a part of a school's duty of care to provide a safe and supportive environment.
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Schools around the globe need to be provided with clear boundaries to which their duty of care extends and students, teachers and parents need to be provided with clear avenues to protect them outside the school. Australian legislation and departmental policies have failed to keep up with advances in technology and do not effectively deal with the problems surrounding cyber bullying, either within schools or within society more generally. Australian legislation is extremely limited and requires the adaptation of other legal mechanisms such as anti-stalking and harassment laws to tackle cyber bullying. It also appears that current laws and policies have stemmed from face-to-face bullying measures and are not designed to deal with the new forms of bullying that are possible in the 21st
Schools around the globe need to be provided with clear boundaries to which their duty of care extends and students, teachers and parents need to be provided with clear avenues to protect them outside the school. Australian legislation and departmental policies have failed to keep up with advances in technology and do not effectively deal with the problems surrounding cyber bullying, either within schools or within society more generally. Australian legislation is extremely limited and requires the adaptation of other legal mechanisms such as anti-stalking and harassment laws to tackle cyber bullying. It also appears that current laws and policies have stemmed from face-to-face bullying measures and are not designed to deal with the new forms of bullying that are possible in the 21st