New Zealand Teachers Bullied at School

I believe this is occurring. Teachers are being bullied out of their jobs on a daily basis and because of the way the education system works if you can’t get a reference from your last school you can’t find another job.  Teachers are afraid to speak out or support their colleagues for fear of being the next victim. And all this happens in publicly funded schools. Teacher’s who take their grievances to Mediation or the Employment relations authority (ERA) find they are only negotiating the loss of their job not the loss of their careers and forced into non discloser and secrecy agreements that only seem to control them and leave them fully exposed when they find out the full extent of the problem, sometimes months later.  DON’T SIGN A SECRECY OR NON DISCLOSER AGREEMENT covering anything beyond the level of settlement and DON’T SIGN A FULL AND FINAL SETTLEMENT THAT INCLUDES ANYTHING NOT KNOWN AT THE TIME OF SIGNING detail what is settled. Since starting this blog a few months ago I have received emails from over 100 teachers and the story is nearly always the same “I was bullied, They Lied. I can’t get another job they are still lying, but I can’t defend myself because of the secrecy clause in my settlement”.  The changes proposed by the Prime Minister John Key to the employment relations laws will not help this situation just provide another tool for the expansive box bullies already have.

 The Report “Understanding Stress and Bullying in New Zealand Workplaces”  Produced by Professor Tim Bentley’s team raises some very serious issues for Education institutions and other organisations in NZ.  I for one believe that Bullying and abuse in the workplace is not an “employment related matter” it is and should be prosecuted as a criminal matter and this would be far better legislation for the government to address. I would support any call for a Royal Commission of Enquiry into the corruption of our education system and believe this should feed into a larger enquiry over abuse in the workplace. I believe the government should be offering us this as a review of their proposed changes. If you are interested in following up on this contact me and I will add you to the off blog correspondence list where you can contribute.  

 I must admit I have trouble identifying the role of the Ministry of Education as their sole response to my enquiries has been to avoid and close the correspondence. Compliance with the Ministries guidelines NAGS and NEGS seems to be voluntary as does adherence to the relevant Acts.  Complaints relating to this and dishonesty are not investigated and the standard reply is that the BOT “has complete discretion to control the management of the school as it thinks fit” the do have some options under section 7a of the Education Act. But as they lack the will to investigate so this is rarely used. I could trim the fat out of this organisation and save us all a fortune.

Filed under: Back ground, Bullying, Minedu, Minister  |   Tagged under blacklisted, blacklisting | 6 Comments »

Last Tuesday three more teachers at Logan Park High School in Dunedin were assaulted by a student this brings to five the teacher victims at this school in the last 12 months. And yet again the principal Jane Johnson is downplaying the situation.  The Police in the Otago Daily Times (ODT) front page article of the 17^th June described the incident as unusual in Dunedin Schools.  I’m guessing the police officer was not including LPHS in this statement as it seems to becoming common place there.  But the real questions are:

If the teachers aren’t safe at school how safe are the students?

Should we send our youth into unsafe situations in schools?

How could ERO have described the School as having “The strength of relationships and the supportive school culture create a safe and friendly environment for learning and teaching.” In their October 2009 Review? 

What are the BOT doing to improve the situation?

And the best one of all

How is this school able to keep its identity secret in negative articles in the local daily newspaper (ODT).

Filed under: Back ground, Bullying, LPHS, Minedu, Minister, Questions  |   Tagged under Bullied, bully, New Zealand, NZ, Open Day, Workplace | 1 Comment »

Today I have published the wording of my original complaint You will see from the Dates that this was quite some time ago. http://shadow.blogtown.co.nz/original-complaint-to-lphs-bot-101108/  you can also access this from the pages menu.  Before writing this complaint I tried to talk to the then Chairperson of the BOT believing that the issues at the school would be better managed informally and in house. It was at Magee Macmurdo Readings insistence that I formalised the complaint.  I believe that this was an atrocious mismanagement by the BOT. There was some folowup communication via email and the BOT’s reply was ultimately

Dear Mr. Owens,
 I am in receipt of your email (below).
 It is my duty to inform you that I have received several complaints from board members saying that you are harrassing them at home with telephone calls regarding  staff employment issues.
For your information, in my role as chairperson, I am the only person who can speak on behalf of the board, and I have both spoken to you on the phone at length, and replied to your letter sent on 10 November.
 Furthermore, I have consulted with our lawyer who has advised me that you have no standing on which to lodge a complaint against the school or the board.
We have also been advised by legal counsel that the board not respond to your letters or emails or telephone calls from here on in.
 I will tell you, however, that Mary Geary of the MOE has written me a letter asking me to provide her with information regarding our procedures on complaints by the 17th of December.
She will be receiving this information as per her request by this time, and she may choose to pass this information on to you.
 This is likely the final reply you will be hearing from the board until that time.
 From:
 
Margi MacMurdo- Reading
Board Chair, Logan Park High School.

This was interesting as I found it nearly impossible to find out who was the chairperson and never received a copy of their complaints procedure despite repeated requests. My contact with other board members was to find out if they had seen my complaint.  Most answered in the negative and I supplied copies.  This board have handed a bit of a hospital pass to the new BOT but I can promise them this is not going to go away till the original complaint is properly dealt with.

From: Rob Owen
To: alex@king.net.nz ; cheryll.walsh@lphs.school.nz ; desruss39@hotmail.com ; jane.johnson@lphs.school.nz ; theautridgefamily@xtra.co.nz ; john.major@lphs.school.nz ; bracey-browns@clear.net.nz ; lorna.mcmullan@lphs.school.nz ; blue_poppy@xtra.co.nz ; pru.casey@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 8:41 AM
Subject: LPHS – Bullying, Dishonesty and other issues.

Dear sirs/madams

On Monday my partner xxxxxxxxxxx attended a meeting with Jane Johnston, Rodger Tobin and Richard Good, A threat was made against xxxxxxxxx’s career unless she could convince me to pull back my complaint. Is this the way the Board intends to deal with this matter?
 
 
Regards
 
Robert Owen

Health and Safety in Schools

Guidelines to the Health and Safety in Employment Act

and

The Health and Safety Code of Practice for State and State Integrated Schools

37.1 Where the board receives any complaint in respect of any matter covered by this Code, or which otherwise relates to the health and safety of people in the school, it shall immediately take steps to inquire into and resolve the complaint by taking appropriate action. Where immediate remedial action is not possible, the board shall take such steps as may be reasonable to minimise the hazard to which the complaint relates.

These Ministry of Education guidelines do not say get a legal opinion or avoid the complaint and I would have thought any suggestion of dishonesty would have been investigated by any competent BOT.  I do not accept that the Board had any competent legal advice or if they did ever presented the full facts to the advisor 

During this process I have reached the conclusion that bullying and dishonesty are acceptable education management tools to:

BOT Logan Park High School

The Ministry of Education (Minedu)

School Trustees Association (STA)

Education Revue Office (ERO)

The Minister of Education’s Office (Anne Tolley)

Filed under: Back ground, Bullying, LPHS, Minedu, Minister  | | No Comments »

NZQA – Why are NZCA Standards not delivered classroom Ready to Teachers? Why are thousands of teacher hours wasted on work that should be centralised?

 Ministry of Education – Just what exactly do they do? What are the NEG’s, NAG’s and Guidelines and how enforceable are they?

 Who is the real employer in education?  Does the Ministry of Education wield to much influence without responsibility?

 Are there to many bureaucrats in education and how accountable should they be?

 Are teachers the least empowered people in education and the scapegoats for all the faults?

How important is honesty and integrity in our education system and who polices it.

 What besides the Education act defines Professional Leaders in schools and ensures their competence.

 How effective are the Education Review Office (ERO) and how detailed and comprehensive are their audits of school administration.

NZ Teachers Council how professional are they and why do practicing certificates take so long to renew? What are the procedures involved in investigating teacher competence and evaluating the validity of complaints.

 What are the policies on workplace bullying by the major players in education?

We now have over 300 regular readers so we are being noticed if you have anything to contributes to these questions please email me.

Filed under: Back ground, Bullying, Minedu, NZQA, Questions  |   Tagged under Bullying of Teachers by Management and Boards (LPHS), Logan Park High School, New Zealand, NZ, Overworked, PPTA, Publicly funded employer Abuse of Power | No Comments »

LPHS has a new Board of Trustees it will be interesting to see if they are able to solve the problems of mismanagement identified in the last BOT. They will need to pay specific attention to issues of conflicts of interest and honesty on the part of senior management at the school.  The new Board is:

Ruth Barnett

Brian Derrett

Sarah Derrett

Alex King

Caroline Rickerby

And I wish them well and hope this signals a new era at the school but I will be reserving judgement as I have no idea what skills they bring to the table but I do hope this is a positive change.

Alex King was part of the previous BOT and I have some nervousness surrounding his presence, his Partner (wife?) is Francine Vella the sports coordinator and as there have been some issues surrounding the “HOD Physical Education” and the Physical Education Dept as a whole it would be a reasonable question for anyone applying for the currently vacant position to ask if someone else is going have greater direct access to senior administration than they will have. I would be extremely cautious given the performance of past boards. I’m not sure that nepotism is an issue at the school but it is worth watching to many careers have been destroyed in this environment for any issues involving the management here to be taken lightly.    

Any System of administration must be judged on the on the worst case scenarios it allows to exist. Clearly Tomorrows Schools is open to abuse and there is no will on the part of the Education Review Office (ERO), the Ministry of Education or the Minister of Education Anne Tolley to address any of its failings or to address bullying in the workplace.  It is time for at least a ministerial review or have things got so off balance we need a public inquiry and some heads to roll? I for one favour the latter.

Filed under: LPHS, Minedu, Minister, Questions  |   Tagged under Bullied, bully, Bullying of Teachers by Management and Boards (LPHS), Logan Park High School, New Zealand, NZ, Workplace | No Comments »

LPHS have been aware since 23/11/09 that they would no longer be offering German Language  as a subject option so why does the International Prospectus referring to the years 2010-2011 (available from www.lphs.school.nz ) still list it as a optional subject years 9-13 after nearly 6 months?

The School has started a student exchange program with a German High School as German is the most spoken first language in Europe and the most learned second language it would be expected that students learning German at LPHS would be the beneficiaries of this. Perhaps dropping German Language is an embarrassment to Logan Park High School as a large proportion of the Foreign Fee Paying Students the school attracts are German or German speaking. I wonder has the school told its German Partners of its decision?

If the school has made a genuine mistake there should no problem with announcing the change of status prominently on their web page and correcting the prospectus. I must admit the lack of a formal public announcement confirming the disestablishment of the German language at LPHS is more than a little suspicious.  Year 9 students who had enrolled  for German in 2010 (approx 30) were advised by letter to late to change their school choices.  Why is LPHS so Secretive?

Where are the Education Review Office (ERO) why are  the not Auditing the effects of  poor administration on students? If I were a parent local or international i would be asking the hard questions of the school BOT and Management.

Filed under: LPHS, Questions  | | 3 Comments »

All forms of workplace bullying should be investigated as a criminal offence and the perpetrators and their accomplices prosecuted by the police. The current situation sees physical assault as an offence that can be prosecuted but psychological abuse is deemed an “employment related matter” quoted from the Chairperson Margi Macmurdo-Reading of the LPHS BOT.  This is a view that seems to be supported by both the Ministry of Education and the Minister Anne Tolley from the correspondence I have received.  If they have a differing view I will happily publish it here in their defence.

I am not aware of any teacher that signed an employment contract that required them to accept any level of abuse so the only relationship I can see to their employment is that often the abuse is at the hands of their employer. We don’t accept this in any of our other relationships Marriage, Civil Union or de facto, Here we have strong protection for the victims and serious penalties for offenders. Why are we required to accept abuse at work?  The Occupation Health and Safety Act and the ERA and Employment Court don’t draw a line between Physical and Psychological abuse why does our criminal system. I say its out of date and needs a revamp.  Abuse is abuse and the employer employee relationship is one of trust it needs to be treated like the other relationships we have.  We spend a large proportion of our lives at work we need to be safe.  The idea that a victim of abuse is required to investigate it themselves and fund any prosecution is out of date and defies my concept of natural justice.  In these cases in schools the employers are publicly funded through the Ministry of Education and the victims out on their own and in most instances loose their jobs. This I lay at the doorstep of the minister who just fiddles while the system collapses.  Shame on you Anne Tolley and the National Government so much for the integrity John Key promised us.

I sounded off yesterday at the PPTA and I apologise for that as I’m a bit of a mushroom.  Its beginning to look like they are recognising the problem and repositioning.  There is a lot of trust to rebuild here but I apologise for yesterday’s transgression.

Filed under: Bullying, LPHS, Minister, Questions  |   Tagged under Bullied, bully, Bullying of Teachers by Management and Boards (LPHS), Logan Park High School, New Zealand, NZ, Workplace | 1 Comment »

Sorry I haven’t been putting much new stuff on the blog lately I have been very busy reading and examining the facts as the school presented them. If the consequences hadn’t been so serious it they would have made a great who dunnit.  But during this process things have taken a much more serious and sinister turn. It seems the Principal Jane Johnson and HOD Languages Barbara Fitzsimons have been putting it around that JHR was a beaten woman at home in an effort to explain her physical and mental state. In this they are acknowledging they were aware of damage they have done but trying to apportion blame away from themselves. Sorry girls that one wont wash but you will get the opportunity to explain yourselves that’s a promise. The more I’ve dug here the more the school looks like a toxic cesspool and ethical wasteland and I am a long way from finished. Many LPHS teachers are afraid to provide support for colleagues for fear they may be the next target and management modifies facts to advance there goals leaving out vital information and denying natural justice.  From the feedback I am getting in emails it’s clear that this is not unique to LPHS.  With the BOT elections parents are going to have an opportunity to remove the current incompetent board and get some real change and a better school. I for one would like to mix some legal cement with the sand Margi Macmurdo-Reading, Alex King and their fellow BOT members have their heads buried in and just leave them there.

I first approached the Board of Trustees(BOT) at LPHS late in 2008 regarding the honesty and integrity of their senior management team. Initially I expected that a simple phone call would have sufficed and the BOT would have resolved the problems “in house” however this was not to be and the chairperson required a written complaint that was hand delivered to the school on the 10/11/08.  The BOT’s response to this was an email reply titled “final response” stating that on legal advice they would not be taking any action on my complaint and to serve me with a trespass notice.  Also included was reference to the fact that I should cease contacting board member as individuals ( I had establish that most BOT members were unaware of my complaint and provided copies).   This blog is going to do what the board was unwilling to do. Examine the facts. And hold the perpetrators to account.  The PPTA have called a meeting at LPHS today I wonder what this is about. And I wonder why they are not meeting with us all seems a bit secret squirrel to me perhaps I will be enlightened soon. Are meetings planned for other schools?  Or is this more politics?

Filed under: Back ground, LPHS, Questions  | | No Comments »

Well we have been going for just over a month now and we are fully searchable on Google and we have reached over a 1000 page views and over 100 users.  It seems teacher bullying is major in New Zealand.  I have added a new link (Workplace Bullying) it makes interesting reading and I would fully recommend the book to anyone.  http://www.leadershipchallenge.co.nz/beyondbullying/targets.asp

There’s even book review in there by Richard Good.   The Bullies target questionnaire is the perfect starting point if you suspect your partner may be being bullied.

Filed under: Back ground, Bullying  | | No Comments »

Why are so many teachers disappearing in the night at Logan Park High School. Roger Tobin (Deputy Principal) even insists that staff being bullied by him or other management not discuss their situation with their colleagues, partners or family. He has been supported in this by the person he refers to as his good friend Richard Good the local PPTA Field Officer. Richard Good has most certainly appears to have been associated with some questionable correspondence to the Ministry of Education and enquiries regarding this to the PPTA have gone unanswered for months.

 This is curious because if you are being attacked you are entitled to defend yourself if you don’t discuss the issues how would you know if anyone else was experiencing the same treatment he is certainly restricted in who he can discuss information with by the privacy act, but the victims are free to discuss their situation with anyone. How would your colleagues be able to assist you or help if the only story they were allowed to hear was the bully version. Secrecy only works to protect the interests of the bullies and to allow them to continue the abuse on the next generation of victims.  It’s interesting that in New Zealand education sector no one seems to have a clear policy on the bullying of teachers. You would expect the PPTA would fight to ensure that judgements and precedents would be in place for OSH to enforce. But they can’t even minute meetings or keep the flow of correspondence up to date. And the only solution they seem to offer victims at LPHS is help with negotiating an exit package (the only offer the victims I have spoken to were offered) is this what you pay your union fees for.  Maybe its time some of the deadwood at the PPTA was offered an exit package they are certainly not offering the type of job security and support one would expect from a professional union.  Given the difficulties members would have finding new employment without a reference from their past employer. I would give the PPTA a solid fail in this regard.

But back to the secrecy. Why does the Board of Trustees at LPHS need this why do the management staff need an indemnity including themselves if everything is above the radar.  I would suggest that any new board coming into governorship make it a priority to examine the past. To free the teachers who have been bullied from their positions from this onerous contractual clause and get to the truth, taking the action required to free the school from the suppressive culture that infests the special character the school clearly use to have.  It would be fantastic to have to rewrite this blog to a positive conclusion for all and see the BOT finally act in the interests of the school

Filed under: Back ground, Bullying, LPHS, PPTA  | | 5 Comments »