Bullies rubbed schoolboy with sandpaper

Press, 17 May 1984, Page 12

Bullies rubbed schoolboy with sandpaper

PA Auckland A boy at a North Shore college had his arms, legs and face sandpapered raw by school bullies. Later his little finger was broken. The boy had grit embedded in his legs for weeks, according to his mother.

“The doctor was horrified when he saw him. It was coarse paper,” she said. The boy had also been spat on and at times did not feel happy about going to school, she said, but things got better for him when he took up boxing. In another incident, a girl suffered a black eye and facial injuries in an assault during a dance at another North Shore school.

The incidents are typical of those being reported to a father who has advertised for parents to get in touch with him if their children have been bullied or har-

assed at school. The man. who did not wish to be named because of an assault on his daughter, said parents calling him had often not reported the incidents to the police. “They say they fear further harassment of their children.”

The man’s concern about harassment began last year when his daughter began receiving telephone calls from pupils at her school. “They were not pleasant,” he said.

This year, his daughter was hit about the face by another girl and needed four weeks physiotherapy for an injured neck. The assault was reported to the police, but the father said he was disappointed with the result. “The child involved appeared before a children’s board because of her age. I

contacted the Minister of Social Welfare, Mr Young, asking if we could attend the hearing to see justice done. We did not want to speak.” The man and his daughter could not attend the hearing under the terms of the Children and Young Persons Act.

“I wrote to the police under the Official Information Act asking for a report of the proceedings. They were very helpful but all they could give me was the result — that the girl was counselled.”

The man said visibility of justice should be paramount in such cases.

“I have tried to bring my daughter up to respect the law and what it stands for. All this suppression and keeping things quiet makes you feel somehow that the aggressor just gets away

“It’s very bad for my daughter, who is the one who suffered, if she cannot see that justice has been done.”

The father has written to the Minister of Social Welfare, Mr Young, asking for changes to the act to allow victims to attend Children’s Board and Children and Young Persons Court hearings and to observe what happens. “That courtesy is extended to other victims of assault in other courts,” he said.

He was trying to offer support and encouragement to parents who telephoned him.

“I’m giving them copies of my files and letters. “I think there will be more brutality if schools and the justice system take this cover-up approach.”