TalkEZY

Bullying discussion unsuccessful

School Education Minister Peter Garrett wants to hear from parents, students and teachers with ideas on how to tackle bullying.

Max Fleet

A BID by School Education Minister Peter Garrett to get a serious discussion about bullying in schools going on social media forum Twitter wasn't a huge success on Monday.

Mr Garrett put the call out on Twitter for people to give him ideas to help stamp out bullying in Australia's schools in the lead-up to a forum on the subject on Tuesday.

There were some serious responses, such as more education about bullying, a national campaign, programs to engage empathy with bullies and an office in each school to report bullying.

But the majority of responses to his call cracked jokes at the expense of politicians, particularly pointing to allegations of bullying in the union and policitical class.

Some of those reponses included, from "MeningaMP": "ALP guide to #bullyingnoway & #stampoutbullying: Shafting Jenkins = Good bullying. Pressure on Thomson + Bad Bullying."

Another took aim instead at Opposition MP Christopher Pyne, from "ZombieChrisPyne": "Good work Peter, I was hurt when people made fun of me at school because I had no heart."

More serious propositions to end school bullying will likely be discussed at Tuesday forum in Canberra, with 16 experts meeting with the Minister.

Source Website:  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/google/bully/~3/xhzypqeQHB0/url