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POLICE IN SCHOOLS PROGRAM Media Interview 1395 5AA and regional stations
HON ROB BROKENSHIRE MLC 14 April 2009 |
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Rob Brokenshire, Family First MLC (5AA 11.06-11.13) Police in Schools Program
(Byner: …we were shocked to hear earlier this year that the number of reported student assaults on teachers, principals and SSOs in public schools have gone from 16 reported incidents in 2003 to 136 five years later. You will recall that the Minister tried to suggest the reason this increase had occurred was because there are higher reporting rates, do we? Let’s remember those are statistics of when unruly children start attacking principals and teachers, the tip of the iceberg of general violence and bullying problems in our schools. Previous research indicates that 64% of school children say bullying is a problem at their school. One in six children are the victims of bullies every week in Australian schools with only a third of children completing school without being bullied at least once. We now have cyber bullying as well. Cyber safety advocate, Dr Martin Wilds saying mid-year that one in three children under 15 has experienced some form of cyber bullying. 99% of children begin the internet use by 5 or 6 meaning these are significant figures. Recent figures also showing bullying translates into poor physical and mental health for boys and girls. Rob Brokenshire, who was a police and emergency service minister, had a police and partnership schools program some time ago and the reason we’re bringing this up today is because we’ve got some major social problems in our schools, which to the defence of the Education Department is not their fault, but because it’s in their jurisdiction, because it’s loco parentis, it is their responsibility. Now their second in charge, Jan Andrew, was on this program recently and said’ That she would not wear for one moment police in schools, we don’t live in a police state.’ Rob Brokenshire, you actually had this scheme going, how did it go?) … we did and it was something I was very keen on because I was picking up lots of anecdotal evidence about it, but what I did in recent months because I believe that whilst schools should not be used to fix every problem in society that good social development work, and not socialist apologist work, but good social development work can actually auger well for a better community … I actually FOId the review because when I was police minister I knew back in August 2001 that police were doing a review of the pilot program. It just amazes me after looking at the FOI how positive all participants … were and yet we still have a Minister and senior people in the Education Department that I think are frankly social apologists that aren’t prepared to look at a real benefit and outcome for our young people in our community (Byner: What was the benefit?) … they were very broad, and interestingly enough police were more cautious on their responses than even teachers, parents and students. The most positive to come out of this … is the young people, the students themselves were very keen and enjoyed the Police in Schools Program. The teachers said they saw it as excellent opportunity to develop better rapport and understanding between police and young people and … teachers said that they felt it would assist in general behaviour in school and community by having those police stay with that Police in Schools Program (Byner: … how does that work?) … a hand-picked police officer who wants to do the work is seconded into a school for part of their working day or maybe a cluster of schools. They break down barriers between what young people often see as enforcement, they show people that they’re into proactivity, they build rapport with teachers, talk to kids about why you don’t bully and harass, talk about hoon driving and the consequences that they’ve seen of that and effectively you’ve got police breaking down barriers and building up rapport with our future adults … (Byner: How many schools did you try this in?) … in two. One up at Port Pirie and the other around Elizabeth … so it was a pilot of one country school and one big city school. That’s not a bad litmus test … I know ministers will say this is another drain on resources but I just wonder, you can’t quantify the value of putting a special group of police into our schools that can nip in the bud bad behaviour and assist to ensure we have good citizens in the future … it’s an investment not a cost (Byner: There might be some who would say aren’t you really asking of the police something which the school ought to be able to handle before it gets to the cops?) Some people would say that and to an extent if it was just on behaviour then that’s true, this is much broader than behaviour. I’ve worked with lots of police, they’ve got kids of their own, they know how to relate to young people in a cool and positive … attitude, they can break down those barriers and can relate to young people about how you build up your goodwill to society and community and I really think that it’s something that should be accelerated now because you’ve just read out … the alarming statistics … surely we’ve got to try something different and if this model has a positive outcome as this review shows, let’s give it a go (Byner: Were SAPOL enthusiastic about this?) When I was minister they certainly were enthusiastic to try the model, and police are rightly so cautious about this when it comes to resources and new initiatives, but my assessment was yes they were, they wanted to give it a go and see how it would work. I would think that SAPOL … would still be positive about it, especially when they see the support the teachers have for this program (Byner: Bob, thank you for joining us … he’s encouraging the Government, I don’t think it’s going to happen, to roll out a program where police are partnered with various schools so there’s a better relationship and maybe a dissuasion of some of the anti social behaviour which has been cause for much concern … across the community).
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