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Bullying payout
May. 15th, 2007 11:32 am$1 million awarded against NSW Education Department for failing to deal with bullying.
Justice Simpson found authorities "grossly failed" [Ben Cox] when he was in kindergarten and year 1 at Woodberry Public School by failing to protect him from repeated assaults, bullying and harassment by an older, disturbed student. During one attack he was "throttled" and lost consciousness, and in another had a tooth knocked out when the bully tried to make him eat his jumper.
When his mother, Angela Cox, contacted the Department of Education and complained that the school had done nothing to stop the attacks, she said she was told that "bullying builds character and [the officer, Ian Wilson] thought it was a good thing Ben got bullied".
I have no problem with the size of the payout. The kid's life has been wrecked, and it can't have made things easy for his mother either. He may have been more than usually vulnerable to bullying, but there's a reason why the 'eggshell skull' rule exists.
And with any luck, it will help the DoE and Mr. Wilson build some much-needed character.
Justice Simpson found authorities "grossly failed" [Ben Cox] when he was in kindergarten and year 1 at Woodberry Public School by failing to protect him from repeated assaults, bullying and harassment by an older, disturbed student. During one attack he was "throttled" and lost consciousness, and in another had a tooth knocked out when the bully tried to make him eat his jumper.
When his mother, Angela Cox, contacted the Department of Education and complained that the school had done nothing to stop the attacks, she said she was told that "bullying builds character and [the officer, Ian Wilson] thought it was a good thing Ben got bullied".
I have no problem with the size of the payout. The kid's life has been wrecked, and it can't have made things easy for his mother either. He may have been more than usually vulnerable to bullying, but there's a reason why the 'eggshell skull' rule exists.
And with any luck, it will help the DoE and Mr. Wilson build some much-needed character.
