Dame Susan Devoy - Bold approach to bullying

On Wednesday I watched the Tauranga Intermediate cricket team battle their way through to the local Milo Cup finals.
As always, Tauranga Intermediate principal Brian Diver came to support the boys and offer advice in his usual ebullient manner.
I am coming to the end of my time at that wonderful school. All of my four sons have relished their years there. I admire Mr Diver - his strong leadership of the largest intermediate school in New Zealand is a result of his energy, enthusiasm and passion for children's education.
Above all, I respect his pragmatic approach which these days is probably seen as old school but refreshing in a world that is now driven by policy and procedure, often without effective results.
We chatted about the problems in the world and agreed that we could form a "straight-talkers" club. No one else would want to join, so we laughed about who would be the president.
And we both agreed that, in light of recent events, bullying is an insidious problem. Bullying is not a new issue but it would appear that it is now more prevalent and certainly more violent. Technology has enabled episodes to be broadcast to the world through videos on YouTube and social-networking sites.
Perhaps the new problem is how to educate teachers and parents about the misuse of new technologies.
Bullying is not just physical; the emotional aspect of bullying is equally damaging and the internet has provided another vehicle for children to be incredibly vicious to others while hiding behind their keyboards.
Prime Minister John Key has instructed the Ministry of Education to write to all schools reminding them of their responsibilities and demanding they review their anti-bullying policies.
I believe most schools encourage a zero-tolerance approach to bullying. But obviously some schools are doing it better than others. At an Education Review Office meeting at Tauranga Boys' College, it was heartening to see that of the parents who attended there was an overwhelming consensus that their sons felt safe at school.
That doesn't mean bullying is not happening but that it is being taken seriously. Let's face it: parents and the wider community have a huge role to play in tackling bullying. We are naive to think that this issue lies only within the school gates.
I recall an incident when I was a young girl attending primary school in Rotorua. Each day I would walk home from school, generally on my own. I always took a shortcut through an alleyway. On a couple of occasions two teenage boys from the local high school stopped me, dropped their trousers and urinated in front of me along with all sorts of threatening abuse.
The fact that I remember it so vividly is an indication of how traumatised I was.
I told my mother, as she was a force to be reckoned with. Over the next few days she waited in hiding until they appeared again. I will never forget the image of mother, who was knee-high to a grasshopper, giving those boys a lashing of her tongue and some serious blows with her umbrella.
Needless to say there was never another issue. Sadly, if the episode was repeated today my mother would probably be charged. The parties involved would attend a restorative justice meeting, where we would all sit in a circle and tip-toe around the issue.
I understand that taking matters into your own hands is not encouraged these days but I am also not convinced that the new way is working either. We appear to have more experts and even more problems.
We need to continue to reinforce to our children the basic values in life and instil in them the importance of empathy for their fellow humans. This isn't the responsibility of any school.