Victoria will give principals the power to suspend and expel students caught bullying classmates or staff online outside school. It will be the third state to grant the powers following New South Wales and South Australia.
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00:00The government says that it has been speaking to principals who say that they've been very frustrated about the fact that if there is bad behaviour, if there is really dangerous behaviour like assaults or cyberbullying that happens outside school hours and outside the school gate, then principals are absolutely powerless to be able to act, even though this has very serious repercussions for the victims,
00:28who then really fear being able to come back and go to school.
00:33So it's interfering in their learning journey and that is why the government says that it has decided to make these changes, to give principals more powers to be able to act on some of those events which clearly are linked to school, however, are not happening within those school hours.
00:49So this means that principals will now be able to suspend or even expel students in the cases of assaults, in the cases of cyberbullying and of course we know that there is a lot more of that that is happening these days online as well as making sure that those victims really do feel supported and safe.
01:12Now, Ben Carroll, the Minister of Education, spoke just a short time ago about these changes.
01:18As you mentioned, these are actually following on to the situation that we've already got with New South Wales and South Australia, where principals already have these powers.
01:29He says that this is not actually getting principals to do police work.
01:34There is still clearly a separate court system for all of that.
01:38However, it just gives principals that ability to be able to control what is happening within their environment and the larger school community environment as well.
01:48Why have they said these new powers are necessary?
01:51It's really, as I mentioned, about the online situation, so the rise of cyberbullying, the fact that so many, as we know, children are now basically digital natives.
02:05So that means that there is, while a huge amount of positive encouragement for being able to use online in the right way, unfortunately some students do take it upon themselves to use it as a tool for harassment.
02:18And so not only is Ben Carroll talking about instances of cyberbullying and threats, but also those sorts of sexualised material, the deep fakes and use of AI as well to be able to really cause problems for students at school.
02:36So he says that that is an area that is particularly concerning for teachers as well.
02:41The fact that, you know, it's 24-7 that kids can be bullied online at all times of the night.
02:49He says that they definitely do not want to see kids coming to school worried about what might have been said at night online or, you know, over the weekend as well.
03:00And so that is why it's really important to really pump up these powers for principals.
03:05Now they will be instituted from July 21, which is the start of Term 3.