Bullying ... 6 things you can do about it & 3 things you can't

Concerned parents may be suprised to find out that at primary school age, schools actually can't do much to protect your child from bullies without exposing themselves to litigation. Aside from education, mediation and separating the children they have their hands tied by state government regulations. It's extremely difficult to expel a primary school aged child, they have to have done something extreme in order for them to get permission from the education department to move a child on.

​However as a parent there are a few things YOU CAN DO that can make a difference.

1. Build your child's confidence and physical responses by enrolling them in Martial Arts. Sometimes this can be enough just by itself, the bully finds out they know martial arts and the problem goes away.
2. Document all meetings with staff, this can be with a diary during the meeting or you can ask to record the meeting but will need permission to do that I suspect.
3. Sometimes you can speak to the parent, they may be unaware and open to your point of view. Not all parents are receptive and sometime bullying is a learned behavior. Be very careful though as I did see a Women get punched by a "Man" and knocked out cold in front of the school gate many years ago.
4. Start a file with the police just in case something happens and you need to go to court for an AVO etc. We did this with a violent underage neighbour and his father when my son was 13. Schools are not outside of the police jurisdiction they just prefer to hand ball it back to the Principal.
5. Any marks bruises etc should be documented by a visit to the doctors and the information passed on to the school
6. Change schools, it sounds like a cop out but if it can't be resolved and your primary concern is your child's well being then change schools. Sometimes this is the best solution.

Things YOU CAN'T DO legally

1. Confront the child, they are children and have very strong protection under the law (as it should be), you could find yourself being arrested and charged.
2. Threaten anyone with harm. I know its hard but keep your cool, if you can't do that then it really is best to stay away.
3. Hit or strike anyone outside of legal self defence applications. 

If it has reached any of these points you should be thinking about changing schools, which is what we did with our oldest in grade 2 when after many attempts to resolve the issue with both the parent and the school but it became apparent that nothing was going to change. 

What are your thoughts?