My elder boy told his grandma (my Mum) that his teacher picked him up by his hair, threw him against a wall and told him he had a black heart because he couldn't remember the Catechism. He was 5.
I went immediately to the Principal who confirmed his story and said she condoned these actions. My son never went back.
I don't blame Catholicism, I blame that teacher and whoever supports such cruelty - but I have heard so many similar stories since.
Ten years later, at a State school, my younger son, although never punished himself, was, with his classmates, made to witness his from teach forcing a boy to crouch beneath the teacher's desk, where he was regularly kicked.
When I heard this, I went into school and told this man I would report him if I heard of any such treatment of any child, my own included.
'But they made me do it,' he bleated, 'they won't do their work properly and I'm not allowed to hit them anymore'.
These children were 7 years old.
I then went to the Principal who didn't seem to care and who told me I was hysterical.
Now anyone who knows me would never use that word.
I don't do hysterical - but 'cold fury' I will gladly accept.
That term, six teachers left my son's school, because they had tried to change things - and failed.
I don't deny that isolated incidents continue but in general, NZ schools have a zero tolerance policy to violence and bullying in any form. I hope this is upheld, it certainly is in my dgs's school.
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