School Community Safety Orders: PV media comment

An article in today’s Age covers the issue of School Community Safety Orders, and includes comment from Parents Victoria. We reported on the introduction of these orders in July, and raised concerns and questions about unintended consequences of the orders.

The Age article reveals that three orders have been enforced since they were introduced in July, with one banning a parent from the school for 12 months.

PV Chief Executive Officer Gail McHardy is quoted in the article. Here’s the relevant section:

Parents Victoria executive officer Gail McHardy said the orders were open to misuse by principals, who could prematurely ban a parent before exhausting other options.

McHardy said the orders were also little understood within the wider community.

“There could be unintended consequences, and it depends how the authorised person who has been given this power manages this,” she said.

In her discussion with Age journalist Adam Carey, Gail raised another point that PV believes is critically important; we need to understand what has led to this level of abuse in the first place.

Parents Victoria has consistently said that any violence is unacceptable in schools, anytime, anywhere, from anyone.

PV believes that a better solution to the problem is that we educate our current and future school leaders and teachers on how best to deal with conflict, by upskilling the workforce as the 2018 Ministerial Taskforce recommended.

Our Think, Wait, Communicate campaign advocates for positive and respectful communication between parents and schools.

PV actively promotes strengthened relationships between families and schools through our work with John Hendry OAM on Relationship based Education.

Read the Age article