A Bullying Case that Exposes the Harsh Reality of Victorian Schools
Note: Names have been changed in this story to protect the identity of victims.
Lexi Watson logs on to her morning class that begins at the usual start of 9am. She’s set to graduate VCE at the end of the year, along with over 65,000 other students, however the road to the final stretch of high school has been a difficult one.
Last year, the Victorian Education said that the cases of “serious bullying” had “soared”. There was a jump of 30 per cent in cases and Victoria came out to be the highest-recorded state in Australia for bullying.
In Melbourne’s North, a public school has come under scrutiny for its lack of response to the record highs and the “neglect” students have felt from the teachers. On a community Facebook post, one parent has called for help in what school could be better for her child as the bullying seems to be “not getting any better and the school isn’t doing anything about it.” Throughout the comments, parents share their own experiences with one mother saying she had to pull her son out for “continued bullying, violence and overall poor experience.”
However, for the Watson family, it stems further than a cry for help through a community Facebook page.
In 2022, Lexi began her transition into VCE as any normal teenager.
Apprehensive about grades.
Nervous about exams.
Excited to graduate in twenty-four months.
She found pride in attending her first round of parties. Made friends with a group of local girls. And tried her hardest to understand new concepts in her studies.
Though it wasn’t just the constant pressure of teachers heckling for better marks.
It wasn’t just the late nights studying for upcoming assignments.
It wasn’t just the confusion of being a teen in an overwhelming world.
It was also the beginning of a bullying drama that would seemingly live out for over twelve months.
In April last year, Lexi was beginning to feel even more attacked and provoked, false rumours were being spread over the school, photos shared even with the Victorian phone ban around classrooms and finally it ended with a fight in the locker bay. Lexi was sent home with a busted lip, bruises down her arms and chunks of hair missing.
For that, it was the final straw of her parents who were finding that the school refused to take them seriously – even before the fight occurred. However, no matter the evidence they shared with coordinators and principals, Lexi was handed the same punishment of suspension as her two bullies.
Her first instance in an unfair justice system, that follows the case throughout its entirety.
Afterwards, Lexi and the two culprits were forced to undertake a school-based safety plan that saw them being moved out of classes with one another, not allowed to be in the cafeteria at the same time or to be engaged in any group activities with one another.
A plan doomed to fail.
When asked to go to school, Lexi screams at her mother that she is “terrified,” and their morning commute becomes a battleground.
“Why am I getting punished the same way the people that beat me up?” Lexi asked her teachers and principal. When they couldn’t give her an answer, other than, “its protocol”, her mother Megan had the same question.
In meetings, phone calls, emails and messages, Megan couldn’t find answers to why her daughter had to undergo such a regulated school experience when she was the victim.
Though, with no answer and no change, Lexi continued her schooling.
Weeks after, the safety plan began to fall apart. Her bullies continued talking about her, broke the set rules by the principal and again engaged in routine bullying.
For this, they were given no punishment. Instead, Lexi found the two girls, walking with the principal, talking, and laughing as though there were no problems.
Afterwards, Megan again called the school. The phone call between her and the principal was “one of the most heated phone calls of my entire life,” she said.
“He refused to listen, he yelled at me as though I was his student and showed no remorse for what my daughter was going through – I’ve never met a man like him.”
With the case falling on deaf ears, the bullying only worsened.
One night, Megan finds Lexi hysterically crying in her bed and when asked what was wrong, Lexi passes her phone to her mother.
There, Megan finds a message from one of the girl’s adult boyfriends saying, “you better keep your mouth shut.”
“You’ll be okay,” Megan tells her youngest daughter, knowing most certainty that the gravity of the situation was only worsening.
Unfortunately, this was the hopeless feeling that over 70 per cent of parents are facing at the moment. Earlier this year the education minister found that a global report of bullying in Australia is three times higher than the OECD average and it is pushing teachers out of the profession.
And this bullying isn’t just for public schools. An affluent, private school in Melbourne’s east has also been at the centre of another famili’s heartache. After an incident with a teacher, who wrongly gave his year 11 student, Daniel, a suspension, Linda and her husband John asked the school for answers. Throughout the earlier months of the year, Daniel became increasingly withdrawn and negligent towards his schooling. Whilst Linda and John thought it may have been general teenage temperament, Daniel opened up about his experience with a particular teacher and the way he was being treated.
Linda and John thought it was appropriate to have a conversation with the teacher to try and understand the situation but were met with such hostility that they have now moved Daniel to another school.
“We were worried about his education and what a long suspension could mean after they haven’t been to school with the covid lockdowns,” Linda says. “We just wanted answers and now we have no choice but to find him a new school.”
Thus, Megan and her daughter Lexi have also had to face that conclusion. After months of deliberations with the school and no answers prevailing, Megan with teary eyes signed the exit forms for her daughter and left the school feeling hopeless.
“I don’t know what’s next, but she’s not staying there,” Megan said to her fiancée when he asked how the day went.
However, the bullying continues. Lexi’s phone is barraged with messages, increasing in threats, with one to her own life.
Fed up and at a loss, the family turned to the police and lawyers for an answer, there they entered a four-month legal battle for restraining orders.
After hearings at the Broadmeadows Magistrates Court, only one restraining order is granted and this is to the bully’s boyfriend who threatened Lexi over the social media platform, Snapchat.
The other two girls, who began this chaos of violence and sadness, were given a warning.
“When they told me they weren’t giving the two offenders restraining orders, I had to hold it together for Lexi but inside I was screaming,” Megan says. “They used the excuse that they were minors and a record with a restraining order would impact their future but…isn’t that what happens when you do the wrong thing?”
Now, left with no school to go back to and scared for her own life, Lexi has changed to an adult education program in Melbourne’s CBD.
“It’s not what I wanted, but this is my only option,” she says after recalling how traumatising entering another school would be.
For her parents, Megan and her fiancée are doing what they can to uphold Lexi’s studies and try to give her the best outlook on the future but the past continuously haunts them.
“What happened to my daughter, showed me that it can happen to anyone,” Megan says. “I know bullying happens but what doesn’t happen is to be ignored by teachers, disrespected entirely by a principal and then to leave a court room with nothing but sadness.”
Throughout it all, Megan still recalls how badly she was treated by the school’s principal and hopes that within the coming months or years, more parents will come forward to share their experiences with him.
“No one – I mean no one, can run a school and be that heartless,” she says as she drives to pick up Lexi from her maths class that now finishes at 8:30 pm. “I just hope someone higher up in Victoria’s education sees all these complaints and does something, but my hopes aren’t high.”
As Lexi enters the car and kisses her mother, hello, Megan asks, “how was your class?”
“Boring,” she replies and changes the radio station.
Megan can only hope that “boring” is better than “terrifying”.
04/06/2023