00:00For Caroline's daughter, kindergarten was truly traumatising.
00:10She was first picked on by a boy in year one.
00:13When she told a teacher at her Belconan primary school, he was told to keep his distance.
00:19And the next day he came up to her and pushed her over and said, I want you to die.
00:26The second time Caroline's daughter was targeted, she was touched inappropriately during after-school care.
00:33A meeting with the school executive followed, along with a rule to keep the children separated.
00:39A rule, the kindergarten boy, broke six times.
00:43So twice he inappropriately touched her again and the other four times were physical violence.
00:49The principal asked if Caroline had considered moving her daughter to a private school to escape the bully.
00:56He also was just like, you know, there's nothing we can do because the boy has a right to an education.
01:05And I was like, well, what about my child's right to an education in safety?
01:09Bullying in ACT public schools is getting worse.
01:12In 2021, a pandemic year, there were 467 incidents reported.
01:19Last year, that number jumped to 723.
01:22Teacher Sarah Warren admits the staff shortage plaguing public schools means educators have less capacity to spot signs of bullying or respond when incidents happen.
01:34You sometimes have more students, definitely less time, and the everyday intensity does definitely mean that you're probably going to miss things.
01:44The impact can be crushing, according to school principal Rachel Matthews.
01:49We're going sleepless over it.
01:51We take home those stories at night where we know when we can't do what the children need.
02:05In his early high school years, Brendan's eldest son endured a campaign of bullying so relentless he contemplated suicide.
02:15Brendan had no idea until year nine.
02:18He withdrew from sport, from after-school stuff, from going to scouts, from going to anything.
02:27Brendan was told a humiliating video featuring his son had been secretly recorded in class and was circulating widely.
02:35He removed both of his sons from the Inner North School and found a therapist for his eldest.
02:41And that was when I finally knew what was going on.
02:44For years, Brendan's son had been taunted, chased, even forced to lick mud from his shoe.
02:50The way it was handled, it felt like we didn't get any information or that we didn't get the right information at the right time when we could do something about it.
03:00After six months at his new private school, Brendan's son unravelled.
03:05It meant that he had this complete and utter breakdown and we ended up getting a diagnosis of functional neurological disorder.
03:13It's a condition that causes the brain and body to malfunction and is often linked to trauma.
03:19The now year 12 student may never recover.
03:22So how confident are you that the FND is linked to his treatment at high school?
03:28Oh, without a doubt.
03:31Rachel Matthews finds stories like Brendan's deeply distressing and says they should serve as a wake-up call to the directorate to boost staffing, funding and roll out consistent bullying training across all schools.
03:45With less than 100 schools in Canberra, we should be able to have a systematic approach.
03:50And we know when there are whole school approaches happening using evidence-based program, you can reduce bullying straight away by about 20%.
03:58The education directorate is confident all public schools are supported and equipped to respond to bullying.
04:06It says teachers are offered a range of evidence-based training, adding the professional learning budget for educators this financial year was $1.5 million.
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