A former student of a Mandurah school spoke out this week about the bullying he experienced because of his sexuality.
No one should be put through this kind of physical and psychological torment, and it is to his credit that he now works as a youth worker helping children in similar circumstances and has found the courage to talk about his time in high school.
It is troubling to think there are students now who might be dealing with the same issues.
But it is reassuring we can now boast of leaders in our education system like Rhys Williams, who is chair of the school board at John Tonkin College; leaders who understand the demands on students of all persuasions and who are sympathetic to their needs.
Mr Williams is right to call for a local community solution to problems that could be faced by students who face bullying or harassment because of their sexuality.
It is our local community who are best suited to protecting our children and understanding their problems.
“There is plenty of evidence to show us that community development programs are more effective when they're locally driven based on the context of a community's needs, as opposed to more generic national programs,” Mr Williams said.
Safe Schools, on the other hand, is a program developed by east-coast academics who couldn’t be more remote from the problems of our community, even those faced by gay and lesbian students at Mandurah schools.
It’s difficult to understand how a program so controversial could be effective.
The merest mention of the Safe Schools program is an invitation for hard-fought and passionate debate.
Safe Schools co-founder Roz Ward – a self-avowed Marxist – attracted criticism and was briefly suspended from the Melbourne university where she is an academic when she called the Australian flag “racist” and wrote her “work would be done” when it was replaced by a “red flag”, a symbol of socialist revolution.
Many everyday Australians would feel uncomfortable entrusting their children to a program devised by a person holding such views.
And even if the program wasn’t mired in so much controversy – there are many parents concerned about its content and it has many high profile and influential opponents – it has become too political to be effective as a counter-measure against bullying.
Safe Schools and the debate around it has become a distraction from the important job of protecting our children from bullying, whatever its cause.
If there is a problem in our schools, let’s face it ourselves, and trust our local community to fix it.