April 06, 2017
Police not the answer for disturbed tamariki
The president of the Taitokerau Principals’ Association is outraged at Education Minister Hekia Parata’s call for schools to call police when pupils are violent and disruptive.
Pat Newman says the minister would be better to take the money set aside for her community of schools policy and put it towards giving schools the resources they need.
He says it is becoming a real problem in Northland, where it takes up to 12 months to get a diagnosis of foetal alcohol syndrome and more than six months to check children for ADHD.
Even then resources don’t flow smoothly when a diagnosis is made, leaving teachers dealing with disturbed young children.
"The teachers that have them are forever under pressure. Having to watch to see what's flying through the air, what fight is happening, what abuse, what hurt they're doing because these kids are children, it's not their fault but they have been harmed by adults and the adult society is not actually giving any help to them. The ministry's answer is to call the police," he says.
Pat Newman says children now talk about self harm and suicide in a casual way far too often.
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