Schools don’t have answers

GOLD COAST schools aren’t doing enough to combat bullying, a high-profile psychologist believes.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said “no school” has it right yet, relying on old-fashioned techniques and unable to stop a growing wave of bullying victims becoming the bullies themselves.

“What you’ve got is a bunch of expensive ambulances at the top of a cliff, instead of robust fences at the top, which is what you need,” Dr Carr-Gregg said.

“There’s no question that there is a clear understanding in school that they need to do more. I don’t think any school has it right yet.

“We still, in some instances, are relying on old-fashioned techniques which have been proven not to work, and we need to really put an emphasis on that social and emotional learning in primary school.”

An increasing number of bullied students have gone on to become bullies themselves as more are pushed to “breaking point”.

However, Dr Carr-Gregg did not believe social media sites such as Facebook contributed to bullying any more than usual.

“The people who bully online are the same people who bully offline. They’re just using social media to do what they were doing in the first place.

“The internet enables kids who would bully covertly in real life to get behind the keyboard and become keyboard warriors, because there’s a sense of anonymity.

“I call it digital Dutch courage.” Dr Carr-Gregg encouraged parents to monitor children who may be disturbed by what unfolded at Elanora yesterday.

“It disrupts their sense of normality and the sense that their world is a safe place to live in,” he said.

“So some of the kids are going to be flustered by it. Others are going to be a little worried for a little while, and then it will die down.

“If you have kids with a pre-existing vulnerability, this will become quite a big thing.

“So it impacts on kids differently, but there is a portion, albeit a small one, that this can really unsettle them, generate anxiety and exacerbate their existing mental health concerns.”