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Wednesday, Apr 16, 2014
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Bullies under fire at Mount Hutt College BY MYLES HUME
MYLES.H@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Mount Hutt College has seen a major spike in pupils dobbing in bullies after it introduced Mid Canterbury’s first youth advocacy scheme. Two months after the pilot programme’s inception, Methven youth mentor Juanita Richards said there had been a 50 per cent increase in Mount Hutt College teens reporting cases of bullying via the reporting system. She said the increase was “highly positive”, indicating pupils were showing more confidence in the systems to address bullying at the school. The programme – introduced by Safer Ashburton’s Think First initiative – sees 22 Mount Hutt College pupils take on a youth advocacy role who fellow teens can approach for help. The idea is to provide an alternative to seeking assistance from parents and teachers. “Having the youth advocates makes it a lot quicker. If you want to go speak to a teacher or a parent you need to make time and you lose momentum.
“With the youth advocates you can deal with it straight away,” Ms Richards, who is funded by the Te Puawaitanga Trust, said. Mount Hutt College principal John Schreurs said a lot of the bullying was at the lower end of the scale, but it meant it was being dealt with before it became more serious. Youth advocates had handed out Youthline cards, but Ms Richards said referrals to the “bullying form” system was most popular, allowing pupils to report bullying on paper where they outline the details of what happened, and who and how they want it to be dealt with. Ms Richards said bullies were approached by a staff member and they came up with a plan of how it should be dealt with. Affected parties then decide how justified the complaint is and if they are satisfied with the process. “That’s then logged on the school system, so we can form patterns and get an idea of what’s going on in the school.” Think First co-ordinator John Hobbs said he hoped to propose the youth advocate scheme to other schools in the district.
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