Summarised by Centrist
Two Christchurch teachers say harassment and intimidation by male students have made them consider leaving the profession.
One teacher, identified as Ruby, said boys used an anonymous classroom question box to write comments including “I want to rape someone”, questions about bestiality and personal attacks against her.
She described a 12-year-old pretending to strike her with a tennis racket and said students had also spat at female teachers. Girls were allegedly sworn at, pelted with oranges and sexually harassed during physical education.
Yet when Ruby reports behaviour that “crosses the line”, she says it “does not get taken seriously by the school”.
“You’d be surprised that they’re still saying, ‘oh, it’s just boys being boys’, when female teachers are crying out about how hard this is,” she said.
Another teacher said some boys refused her instructions because she was a woman. One student put his hand in her face and said, “I don’t care.”
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie says the union is urgently developing guidance for teachers responding to misogynistic and extreme views. He also blamed social media platforms, saying schools were “trying to put out fires” while the platforms were “holding the match”.
Abercrombie acknowledged the difficulty of separating personal beliefs from misconduct. “If you want to have a trad-wife relationship when you get older and that’s what you and your partner want, go for it,” he said.
Editor’s note: Threats, spitting, sexual harassment and refusing reasonable instructions are already breaches of basic school standards. The teachers’ accounts suggest the immediate problem may be less about defining “extremism” and more about whether school leaders are willing to enforce ordinary expectations of behaviour and respect.
Image: Queensland State Archives
