Tag Archives: Police

Schools in behaviour battle

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Schools in behaviour battle

By JOHN HARTEVELT – The Press | Wednesday, 01 October 2008

High-decile schools grappling with misbehaving students want more help, as a new report reveals they use less than a quarter as many social workers as low-decile schools.

Two teacher conferences under way in Wellington this week are discussing strategies to deal with increasingly extreme incidents of disruptive behaviour in the classroom.

The New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), which represents 47,000 primary school staff, yesterday issued guidelines for dealing with troublesome pupils.

NZEI vice-president Ian Leckie said extreme misbehaviour crossed class boundaries.

“You’ve only got to look at the child who is very spoiled and from a very well-to-do background whose mother won’t buy them the lollies in the supermarket,” Leckie said.

“What that indicates, too, is that some of these behaviours even manifest before they start school,” he said.

“The ongoing need to be able to deal with that is very, very clear.”

A report by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) released today said there was “a very big difference” between the number of social workers in schools based on socio-economic factors.

A survey showed 81 per cent of primary school principals at decile one and two schools had or were considering the introduction of social workers, compared with only 17% of principals in decile nine and 10 schools. Social workers were available or in the offing at 25% of decile three to eight schools.

Leckie said increasing the number of guidance counsellors at primary schools was “an absolute priority”.

“And that is because of the inordinate amount of time that is taken to deal with every incident,” he said.

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) opened its conference yesterday, with strong interest from teachers in a workshop to discuss bad behaviour.

“People were all supportive but wanted more, really,” said Martin Henry, who chaired the PPTA workshop.

“Clearly the issue of highly disruptive kids goes across all deciles,” he said.

“It may be that you don’t need a whole social worker in your school but you need access to the sort of resources that you get from CYFS (Child, Youth and Family), from the police and from the other things that are on offer that’s the sort of discussion going around at the moment.”

Henry said there was a systemic problem with the way society dealt with marginal children, but there was more that teachers themselves could do within the classroom.

The NZCER report shows at least half of the nation’s schools had not had training on key areas such as positive approaches to student behaviour. Only one-third of principals said their school could afford the professional development it needed.

“We know that the more professional teachers are the better their impact on kids,” Henry said.

“We want to see more of that and we want to see it more tailored to the individual schools.”

By day a teacher … by night a prostitute

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Another reason for Home Educating our children:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10533330

By day a teacher … by night a prostitute

4:00AM Sunday Sep 21, 2008
Rachel Grunwell

Photo / Herald on Sunday

Photo / Herald on Sunday

An Auckland primary school teacher is moonlighting as a prostitute, throwing her school bosses into a quandary over her future.

The woman, a mother of two children in her 30s, is new to teaching and moonlights as a prostitute to boost her income.

The Herald on Sunday understands her principal was alerted to the situation by a student’s parent.

It is understood the principal is now in a dilemma – prostitution is legal, but he is worried about the reaction of other parents and students if they find out about the teacher – and has referred the matter to the school’s board of trustees.

The board will meet in committee shortly to debate whether it should ignore the issue, discipline the teacher or refer the matter to the Teachers’ Council to judge.

The matter was raised at a recent Law Society seminar.

The teacher has apparently defended her situation to her principal, saying that what she did in her own time was of no concern to him, that it was a private matter, and that prostitution was now lawful and legitimate work. She told him her moonlighting job was not affecting her performance as a teacher.

She apparently told the principal he had no right to be the “moral police”.

A source said the woman was considered to be a “good teacher”.

Employment lawyer John Hannan said he had heard about the case and believed it was still unresolved.

He said schools could have policies to prevent teachers taking secondary jobs, or make sure that they first sought approval from their board.

But even if the board in this case did not have such policies, he believed it could still ask the teacher to quit prostitution and if she refused, it could threaten dismissal.

“It’s a case of whether the outside employment is regarded as incompatible with the role of a teacher in terms of role-modelling and in terms of any policies that the board of trustees might have in place,” he said.

Another employment lawyer, Patrick Walsh, who also knew of the case, said an issue like this had not been before the Teachers’ Council so there would be no precedent for boards to follow.

He said the council could end up being involved if the school deemed the teacher’s second job was “conduct that brings discredit to the profession”.

Teachers’ Council director Dr Peter Lind said the key issue was whether the teacher’s second job was having an impact on her professional teaching duties “and there would have to be actual evidence”.

He said principals and boards generally tried to resolve issues first. If problems escalated and remained unresolved then the Teachers’ Council could be notified.

Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator Catherine Healy said she knew of several teachers who worked in second jobs as prostitutes and they had every right to do so.

“There is no incompatibility between a woman who’s a teacher and who works as a sex worker,” she said. “I can’t imagine what the problem would be.”

She said if the school board needed questions answered about the industry, or advice, members were welcome to call her.

According to the primary and intermediate teachers’ union, the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), the pay scale for primary teachers is generally between $42,600 and $66,000. Experienced teachers who took on increased responsibility could earn more on top of their basic salary.

Two years ago, an Auckland policewoman got into trouble with her employers after it was revealed she was moonlighting as a sex-worker at a top massage parlour.

She earned up to $500 a night working in the parlour, on top of taking home at least $43,000 a year as an officer.

Police bosses said at the time the secondary employment would never have been approved because that kind of work was seen to be inappropriate and incompatible with policing.

An investigation was carried out and the woman was able to keep her job in the police.

Parents to get truancy reminders

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Parents to get truancy reminders

By MARCUS STICKLEY – Nelson | Monday, 25 August 2008

Parents could soon start being prosecuted for taking their children out of school for a holiday, a Nelson principal says.

Primary schools have been reinforcing attendance rules with parents after receiving reminders from the Education Ministry to do so.

Under the Education Act, every pupil enrolled at a registered school must attend the school whenever it is open. Ministry guidelines say it is up to principals to decide whether an absence is justified.

Parents can be prosecuted for not sending their children to school, and fines of $15 a day – up to $150 for a first offence – can be imposed if they are convicted.

Hampden St School principal Don McLean said that for a school to prosecute a parent for taking their child away on holiday would be a “bold thing to do, but maybe it’s not too far away”.

In his school newsletter in May, he told parents that the ministry was taking a “tougher line on attendance and have clearly defined what a justifiable absence is and what truancy is”.

“Some of you may be surprised to hear that if you take your child on an overseas trip in school time, this is considered an unjustified absence and therefore your children are recorded as truant.”

Similarly, a week-long ski trip during school time would also be unjustified, he said in the newsletter.

Mr McLean told the Nelson Mail the school kept a record of pupils who missed school due to family holidays, and he planned to “take parents aside” to discuss the issue if they did it regularly.

“We have to get tough on them.”

However, he said the rules were “one size fits all”, which he did not agree with.

If a pupil was travelling to a destination such as Europe, the cultural education they would get could be more valuable than what they would learn in the classroom in that time, he said.

Mr McLean said four children were currently away overseas, mostly for family reasons.

“There seems to be a lot at the moment.”

Hampden St School parent Andrew Meffan has taken his two children on week-long skiing holidays to Wanaka during the school term in previous years.

He said he planned to do the same next week, staying with members of his extended family in a house that was available to them only at certain times during the year.

“But we don’t want to be on the wrong side of the rules and have a truancy officer knock on our door.”

Mr Meffan said truancy rules needed to be targeted appropriately.

“There needs to be more of an evaluation of cases based on the student and family, and commitment to learning.”

St Paul’s Catholic Primary School principal John Dorman said he had received a letter from the ministry before the start of the school year, saying schools should not condone parents taking their children out of school for holidays.

Craig wrote this letter to the editor:

25 August 2008

Letter to Editor

Nelson Mail

Nelson

The idea of schools threatening parents with truancy notices for taking their children on holiday demonstrates one of the more obvious characteristics of state schooling institutions: that they are simply prisons or child warehouses, designed to baby-sit kids and keep them off the streets.

A holiday with the family, the MoE apparently informs the schools, is not a “justified” absence from school. So the MoE equates a geographical/cultural/social field trip with a child’s parents and siblings to hanging around the mall or sitting at home watching videos all day. The MoE demonstrates again its disconnection from the real world. Any formal notification by the parents that they are taking the child out of the schooling institution should be justification enough: the parents’ authority should trump that of the MoE any day.

Regards,

Policeman takes girl to school each day

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Policeman takes girl to school each day

By JOHN HARTEVELT – The Press | Monday, 04 August 2008

A Christchurch mother has been prosecuted over her daughter’s truancy in the first Canterbury case before the courts under a new scheme designed to cut wagging.

The mother of the 14-year-old Linwood College student was given a six-month suspended sentence on Thursday in the Christchurch District Court.

If the student is caught wagging again within the next six months, the woman will go back to court and be sentenced again.

Police are so keen to prevent the student going astray again that an officer is taking her to school each morning.

The police district co-ordinator of youth services, Senior Sergeant John Robinson, who is doing the daily pick-up, said the girl had been getting her schooling back on track.

She had told him her relationship with her mother had improved, and she was enjoying being back in school.

“Like any programme, there are plenty that we’ve got hassles with, but currently she’s doing really, really well. I’m exceptionally proud of her,” Robinson said.

The girl’s mother went to work early, and Robinson said he was happy to do the school run to get the girl back in the habit of going to school.

“If it’s what it takes to get her back engaged in school, then that’s great. It’s really, really good,” he said.

Parents have been prosecuted over truant children in the past, but this is the first case to have been brought in Canterbury under a new scheme called Rock On, which has six steps before a prosecution is made.

The girl’s mother was sent two letters from Linwood College. “And then there’s a knock on the door by the police, who serve a letter,” Robinson said.

The district truancy service takes the matter to the school.

“There’s an informal conference held at the school, where some of the agencies get together, along with the school, and discuss what the issues are.”

A further letter was sent informing the mother there would be a family group conference.

The family group conference put in place a series of steps, and when those failed to work the prosecution was made.

“We don’t want to prosecute parents for not having their kids at school, but we also want them to buy in to the process to get their kids ultimately re-engaged back in to school,” Robinson said.

The scheme was designed as a 16-week programme but had dragged on longer, he said.

Linwood College principal Rob Burrough said the student was back at school and doing well.

“She’s not a bad kid; it’s just she hadn’t been turning up to school,” he said. “Sometimes the tough-love approach is the best way because it is a shock to students when mum or dad is going to get prosecuted because they’re not going to school.”

He was delighted with the support of the police in taking the girl to school each day.

“They haven’t just dumped her. I knew he was doing that, and it’s great,” Burrough said.

Linwood is one of six schools in Christchurch trialling the Rock On scheme.

Robinson said further prosecutions were likely, with many students going through the family group conference stage.

Parents sent to jail for homeschooling

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POLICE STATE, GERMANY
Parents sent to jail for homeschooling
‘Words escape me, it’s unconscionable, incredible, shocking,’ says attorneyBy Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A mother and father who have been homeschooling their children each have been ordered by a German judge to serve three-month prison terms after a prosecutor said he was unhappy with fines the family paid and he wanted the parents jailed.

The sentences for Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek were announced in Germany’s equivalent of a district court today in the state of Hesse, according to a staff attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association. The group, the premier homeschooling advocacy organization in the world, has been monitoring and helping in the Dudeks’ case since before a federal prosecutor announced his intention more than a year ago to see the parents behind bars.

“Words escape me, it’s unconscionable, incredible, shocking,” HSLDA staff attorney Mike Donnelly told WND after he got word of the sentence. “They’ll appeal of course.”

He said the prosecutor’s agenda is clear, with the mindset: “You guys are rebelling against the state. We’re going to punish you.”

Donnelly said work was begun immediately to pursue an appeal through the court system in the German state.

He described the sentences as “breathtaking.”

It was just a year ago when WND reported the prosecutor, Herwig Muller, appealed a lower court’s imposition of fines against the Dudeks.

The prosecutor said at the time he would demand jail sentences of three months each for the parents. Muller also said he would not permit the case to be resolved with probation for the parents.

A newspaper reporter in Hesse, Harald Sagawe, said the parents previously paid fines because “they did not send their children to school, for religious reasons.”

He continued, “The parents, Christians who closely follow the Bible, teach their children themselves. Two years ago the court had also dealt with the Dudeks. That case, dealing with the payment of a fine, had been dropped.”

Judge Peter Hobbel, who imposed the fines, also criticized school officials for refusing to answer the family’s request for approval of their “private school.”

Arno Meissner, the chief of the government’s local education department, said he would enforce the mandatory school attendance law against the family, and he said he resented the judge’s interference.

“His duty is to make a judgment when the prosecutor brings a charge and to stay out of administrative matters,” Meissner said at the time.

The attitude is typical of some officials in Germany, where homeschooling has been stamped on since the Nazi era, critics say.

Practical Homeschool Magazine has noted one of the first acts by Hitler when he moved into power was to create the governmental Ministry of Education and give it control of all schools and school-related issues.

In 1937, the dictator said, “The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”

Joerg Grosseleumern, a spokesman for the the Netzwork-Bildungsfreiheit, a German homeschool advocacy group, said in Hesse a family’s failure to follow the mandatory public school attendance laws violates not only administration regulations but the criminal code.

“It is embarrassing the German officials put parents into jail whose children are well educated and where the family is in good order,” he wrote in an earlier alert about the situation. “We personally know the Dudeks as such a family.”

Officials in Hesse have said not even the family’s efforts to move out of the region would halt their prosecution.

HSLDA officials estimate there are some 400 homeschool families in Germany, virtually all of them either forced into hiding or facing court actions.

Just weeks ago, WND reported the Dudeks warned about a new German federal law that also gives family courts the authority to take custody of children “as soon as there is a suspicion of child abuse,” which is how the nation’s courts have defined homeschooling.

“The new law is seen as a logical step in carving up family rights after a federal court had decided that homeschooling was an abuse of custody,” said the letter from Juergen Dudek to the HSLDA.

The letter said local “youth welfare” offices’ new authority includes “withdrawal of parental custody as one of the methods for punishing ‘uncooperative’ parents.”

Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has commented on the issue on a blog, noting the government “has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion.”

Drautz said schools teach socialization, and as WND reported, that is important, as evident in the government’s response when a German family in another case wrote objecting to police officers picking their child up at home and delivering him to a public school.

“The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-called homeschooling,” said a government letter in response. “… You complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by the responsible local police officers. … In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement.”

In recent years Germany has established a reputation for cracking down on parents who object, for reasons ranging from religious to social, to the nation’s public school indoctrination of their children.

WND has reported several times on custody battles, children being taken into custody and families even fleeing Germany because of the situation.

One of the higher-profile cases on which WND has reported was that of a teen who was taken by police to the psychiatric ward because she was homeschooled.

The courts ruled it was appropriate for a judge to order police officers to take Melissa Busekros, 15 at the time, into custody in January 2007.

Officials later declined to re-arrest her after she turned 16. She was subject to different requirements and simply fled state custody and returned to her family.

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