College denies turning blind eye to bullying

An East Auckland high school says it does not have a bullying culture and is making moves to stamp out "ugly" behaviour, despite complaints from parents and students.

Howick College yesterday issued a newsletter reassuring parents the school had programmes and processes in place to deal with bullying behaviour.

"Our college does not have a culture of bullying and we are very aware of our responsibilities to keep every individual free of any physical or emotional harm," said principal Iva Ropati.

"We already have a well-embedded restorative approach to managing negative behaviour and this has proven to be a highly successful model."

Mr Ropati's comments came after dozens of parents and some students contacted the Herald this week when the father of a Year 9 Howick student said his daughter was being so badly bullied, he was forced to send her to South Africa for school.

De Wat Blaauw's daughter, Michaela, was tripped up and slapped at the college this year.

Yesterday, Mr Ropati said new information had led to the re-interviewing of several students, and investigations were continuing.

Several parents said their children had also been bullied while at the college, with some saying students had had to change schools because the bullying was so bad.

One woman, who did not want to be identified as she has another child at the college, said she had had to move her daughter to a private school. "We had to change our home telephone number. They'd call our house, ask for her, and then shout and scream at her. They'd call past midnight and I threatened to tell the police, but it didn't work."

The woman said her daughter endured "a good full year" of bullying in 2008. She said she was disappointed with college staff, who seemed to dismiss the situation. "We had to talk to the dean, counsellors. The counsellor just said it would suit everybody else if she just left.

"We called around all the schools in the area, wrote letters, begged, but we were not in zone so none of the others would take her.

"Our only option was to send her to a private school, which breaks the bank monthly, but you can't put a price on your child's education or happiness."

The woman said she and her husband tried several times to meet the principal at the time, but were told the issue was not important enough.

Another parent said a young relative of hers had been bullied so much he flatly refused to go to school.

"The school passed us from one manager to another and to cut a long story short, they essentially threw up their hands, said they had a very big school and couldn't take on the problems of this child, and encouraged us to send him somewhere else."

Mr Ropati - who became principal in January - said he would encourage the parents who had contacted the Herald to speak to him.

"We may have bullies, we may have bullying behaviour, but all schools are vulnerable.

"And I stress that we do take every bullying case very seriously.

"If that hasn't happened in the past, then that is out of my control."

Mr Blaauw said that since the reports about his daughter's case appeared in the paper, several parents had contacted him with their stories.

"Not just Howick [College] parents, but there have been other parents from other schools call me with similar things, similar treatment, similar responses."

Michaela, who is enjoying her schooling in South Africa, was happy her story had been told. "I think she's relieved that it's out in the open."