Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Council of Government Schools Organisation’s Tabby Fudge hopes a phone ban at schools will stop students from sharing videos of fights online

Transcript

NT Council of Government Schools Organisation’s Tabby Fudge hopes a phone ban at schools will stop students from sharing videos of fights online · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You have just heard from the minister about the mobile
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: phone band in schools, So what's the reaction been from
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: parents and those involved in the sector. Well, joining me
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: on the line is the President of the Northern Territory
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Council of Government Schools Organizations, Tabby Fudge.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Tabby.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Tabby. What was your reaction to this band?
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Oh, we were very very pleased to hear Minister Lawla
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: announced the band yesterday. It's something that we have been
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: advocating for some time because you know, we've had several
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: mini families, schools and school representative bodies or the councils
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: and boards ask us to advocate for a ban on
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: mobile phones and up until next year, the use of
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: phones has always been up to individual schools to determine
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: the policy and to enforce that policy. In our September
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: meeting with Minister law which was our first meeting with
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: her back as Education Minister, we spoke about our concerns
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: regarding you know, the illegal use essentially of mobile phones
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: being used to film, you know, highly inappropriate behaviors and
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: then being posted to social media. And Minisolola has taken
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: that on board and comes forward with this wonderful policy
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: that will be implemented as a term one next year.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Tabby, what kind of incidents are you sort of talking about?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I know you might not be able to go into
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: much detail, but what kind of thing was happening?
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Well, as you've been discussing on radio, you know, there's
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: been children with the students filming fights and things like that,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: you know, and then posting them to social media. You know,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: and this is entirely inappropriate, and this is not good
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: for anyone, you know, at least of all the students
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: who are who are doing that. You know, it's illegal,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: it's not appropriate. It needs to be stopped. And if
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: we had ban pines from being used in schooling, recess
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: and lunchtime particularly, this should hopefully put a bit of
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: a lead on this kind of really really inappropriate behavior.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Tabby, I know I did touch on this yesterday as well.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I know that there are pages on the likes of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Instagram fights, you know, like fights pages for specific schools,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: also crush pages, you know, if somebody's got a crush
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: on somebody posting photos or posting their names, and then
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: you know, sort of seeing if the other like, I
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: don't know how it works, to be honest with you,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: but but you know i'd been alluded to it. Is
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: this something that's been raised with you guys by parents.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Definitely, the filming of fights. Absolutely, there has been problems
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: with filming in toilets as well, So you know, it
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: is it is across the board, you know. It is
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: that you know, inappropriate filming of you know, other students
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: who don't want to be filmed, at members who should
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: not be getting filmed, of other parents being filmed. You know,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: this is you know, aside from being highly inappropriate, it's
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: also illegal. So you know, if we take this you know,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: opportunity away from students, you know, and we must very
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: you know mine too that this is a small percentage
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: of kids for doing this. This is not the majority
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: of kids. So you know, if we put a band
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: in place, this will go some way to addressing this
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: inappropriate behavior.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Tabby, do you reckon it's going to be hard to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: enforce or do you think that it's going to be
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: quite simple for those schools to actually be able to
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: carry this out.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: I think it will come with challenges. We have seen
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: a lot of success come out of Victoria's. So I
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: imagine our Department of Education will work with the Department
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: of Education in Victoria for what has worked for them
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and what they've had problems with. You know, it's not
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: like we're going out here, you know, first cap off
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: the rank kind thing. You know, other regions have already
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: had this in place for a couple of years, So
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: we can learn from what they've found with, you know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: successes and challenges and go forward like that. You know,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: I think in primary schools it will be a lot
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: easier because I think existing in piling primary schools already,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: you know, the children put their fines in the message
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: bag in the morning, off, it goes to the off
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: and it comes back in the afternoon. I think, you know,
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: there will be challenges in more so, probably middle school.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: I was speaking with the principle this morning who has
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: come from South Australia, and when they implemented the band
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: they ended up getting individual lockers for students as the
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: best way going forward. We'll just have to wait and
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: see how it all pans out.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Really, I suppose, yeah, and that's it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: It may be different at some schools to what it
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: is at others.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Tavy with this band.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Does there also need to be though more education for
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: kids about how to treat each other online? Or do
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you feel so schools are already adequately doing that and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: parents need to step up as well.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, there isn't a really good opportunity here for parents
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: to be partnering with schools. And you know, essentially, you know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: this is a really big part of the parents space too.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: You know, parents need to encourage their children to to
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: do the right thing by each other and treat others
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: as you would like to be treated yourself, And you
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: know that it really is part of that parent responsibility
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: when it comes to things like mobile science.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's just such a whole new world, isn't it
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: these days? You know, At the risk of sounding like
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: an old person, Tabby, you know, back in our day,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: you didn't have to worry about this kind of thing.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Oh I'm so old that I remember Marvel cards and.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: A thing wrong with that, Tabby. Oh look, I really
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. I always appreciate you having
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: your chat with us, and please to keep us up
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: to date with how things roll out. But on the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: face of it, this does seem like a really good
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: move by the government absolutely.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: And the research shows is coming in from out of
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: other jurisdictions in Australia that student outcomes improve, you know,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: academically over six percent, you know, and that's even more
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: so for those kids who really need it, so, you know,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: as well as the social and emotional benefits of you know,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: having you know, some of those poorer elements taken away
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: from the inappropriate use of mobile phone. So I think
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: it's only going to be a positive. It will probably
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: have its teething problems, but at the end of the day,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I think it's all for the best.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Well, Tabby Fudge, always good to catch up with you.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time this morning.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Thanks, have a wonderful day everyone, you too,