12th April 2023
The Herald Sun today, Apr 12 2023, reported on the violence surrounding young children involved in violent clashes as part of a ‘Fight Club’ fad operating within the school system. The club and its protagonists are not gender specific.
Organised through social media, these fights appear vicious and common. It comes after the Herald Sun revealed earlier this week that more than 130 brutal fights involving kids had been posted on the Instagram page which celebrates vicious brawls, including more than 30 just in the past week, reported in just one area of Melbourne.
These events involve at least ten schools, and the social media site used has 2000 followers.
These statistics are beyond alarming, and if anybody is naive enough to see this as a school problem, the spill over into the broader community is inevitable; watch out.
Add to that, the complaints from teachers about violence and lack of discipline in the school system directly impacts the learning progress of all students and the safety in the teacher’s workplace. There is little wonder that teachers are hard to recruit. Who wants to go to work with a real risk of getting bashed? No wonder the standard of education is in such decline.
The CAA has raised these issues for a number of years, so there are no excuses for inaction that our community leaders can present – they have been warned ad infinitum, yet have chosen not to act.
It is sad to say that death or acute injury to a student, at school, or a teacher is inevitable. School shootings, the scourge of America, almost will inevitably come to our schools. Perhaps our gun laws may reduce the incidence of firearms, but bladed weapons will be our nemesis.
Putting the collective heads in the sand by those responsible is a disgrace of epic proportions.
This problem is escalating and will not go away unless they act. Stop looking for excuses to divest your responsibility to others; take a leadership position and act; that is supposed to be your job.
When the community realises that the inaction of those with the power to make changes have avoided doing so, and our most valuable resource and future are in decline, they will be looking to lay blame, which could hurt those responsible as much as the kids now suffer.
The violence our children is exposed to can only lead to an upsurge in violence later in life for these children as they see violence as a means to an end.
As an example, it is not rocket science that the children of North Richmond who are being desensitised to the perils of illicit drugs, exposed to the outcomes daily, will lead to many of those children taking up the ‘cool’ life of an addict.
Will the leadership of today take responsibility for those outcomes?
If we think there is an epidemic of Domestic violence, now wait a decade. As children of today enter relationships as adults, the solution to dispute resolution (FDR) will be domestic violence on a scale that will make today’s skyrocketing incidents seem tame.
Inaction by government and police leadership is responsible, and ducking and weaving will not ameliorate the moral responsibility of failure by notable individuals from both entities.
To the current Government and police leadership, the recent headlines about youth violence can only be ignored at your peril.
With over four hundred years of Policing experience and a raft of other disciplines in the CAA, it would be unwise to ignore the warnings and dismiss the solutions we have proffered.
In 2016 we warned of a coming crime tsunami which was ignored, and the prediction eventuated.
Our feedback from the community is that it is getting sick and tired of inaction on critical social areas while less important, on a quantitative scale, are getting the attention.
This is the litany of issues raised by the CAA that have been ignored.
Drug scourge in schools
by CAA | Jun 19, 2017 |
There is no doubt that additional education of students on the negative aspects and risks of drugs is essential, as are support services for those affected. Still, if ever there was an argument for the allocation of Police Resources to schools to work to prevent the problem, then this is it.
In other States, Police are embedded in Secondary Schools as part of a structured Police In Schools Program, but that does not seem to be a worthy allocation of resources in this State. Paradoxically in other States with structured Police In Schools Programs, Crime rates are falling.
Assistant Commissioner Nugent correctly highlights how the drug issue in schools feeds into the ever-increasing crime rate.
We cannot expect teachers to deal with the criminal aspect of the Drug problem in Schools.
Comment;There is no evidence that police actively tried to address this issue- possibly seen as a School problem.
Full story at https://caainc.org.au/drug-scourge-in-schools/?
Class War
by CAA | Oct 8, 2018 |
Apart from the obvious advantages of a safer community overall, the proposal to reintroduce the Police In Schools Program to Primary Schools and embed police in Secondary Schools (PISP) would see a substantial increase in safety for teachers.
The Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) has submitted the PISP proposal to both the Government and the Opposition. However, only the Liberal Opposition has embraced and announced the inclusion of a PISP in their policy.
This initiative would be the most effective way to keep our children safe, help protect our educators and reduce stress and achieve better educational outcomes for our children.
Comment; Twelve months later, after multiple representations, no action was taken.
The Herald Sun today, Apr 12 2023, reported on the violence surrounding young children involved in violent clashes as part of a ‘Fight Club’ fad operating within the school system. The club and its protagonists are not gender specific.
Organised through social media, these fights appear vicious and common. It comes after the Herald Sun revealed earlier this week that more than 130 brutal fights involving kids had been posted on the Instagram page which celebrates vicious brawls, including more than 30 just in the past week, reported in just one area of Melbourne.
These events involve at least ten schools, and the social media site used has 2000 followers.
These statistics are beyond alarming, and if anybody is naive enough to see this as a school problem, the spill over into the broader community is inevitable; watch out.
Add to that, the complaints from teachers about violence and lack of discipline in the school system directly impacts the learning progress of all students and the safety in the teacher’s workplace. There is little wonder that teachers are hard to recruit. Who wants to go to work with a real risk of getting bashed? No wonder the standard of education is in such decline.
The CAA has raised these issues for a number of years, so there are no excuses for inaction that our community leaders can present – they have been warned ad infinitum, yet have chosen not to act.
It is sad to say that death or acute injury to a student, at school, or a teacher is inevitable. School shootings, the scourge of America, almost will inevitably come to our schools. Perhaps our gun laws may reduce the incidence of firearms, but bladed weapons will be our nemesis.
Putting the collective heads in the sand by those responsible is a disgrace of epic proportions.
This problem is escalating and will not go away unless they act. Stop looking for excuses to divest your responsibility to others; take a leadership position and act; that is supposed to be your job.
When the community realises that the inaction of those with the power to make changes have avoided doing so, and our most valuable resource and future are in decline, they will be looking to lay blame, which could hurt those responsible as much as the kids now suffer.
The violence our children is exposed to can only lead to an upsurge in violence later in life for these children as they see violence as a means to an end.
As an example, it is not rocket science that the children of North Richmond who are being desensitised to the perils of illicit drugs, exposed to the outcomes daily, will lead to many of those children taking up the ‘cool’ life of an addict.
Will the leadership of today take responsibility for those outcomes?
If we think there is an epidemic of Domestic violence, now wait a decade. As children of today enter relationships as adults, the solution to dispute resolution (FDR) will be domestic violence on a scale that will make today’s skyrocketing incidents seem tame.
Inaction by government and police leadership is responsible, and ducking and weaving will not ameliorate the moral responsibility of failure by notable individuals from both entities.
To the current Government and police leadership, the recent headlines about youth violence can only be ignored at your peril.
With over four hundred years of Policing experience and a raft of other disciplines in the CAA, it would be unwise to ignore the warnings and dismiss the solutions we have proffered.
In 2016 we warned of a coming crime tsunami which was ignored, and the prediction eventuated.
Our feedback from the community is that it is getting sick and tired of inaction on critical social areas while less important, on a quantitative scale, are getting the attention.
This is the litany of issues raised by the CAA that have been ignored.
Drug scourge in schools
by CAA | Jun 19, 2017 |
There is no doubt that additional education of students on the negative aspects and risks of drugs is essential, as are support services for those affected. Still, if ever there was an argument for the allocation of Police Resources to schools to work to prevent the problem, then this is it.
In other States, Police are embedded in Secondary Schools as part of a structured Police In Schools Program, but that does not seem to be a worthy allocation of resources in this State. Paradoxically in other States with structured Police In Schools Programs, Crime rates are falling.
Assistant Commissioner Nugent correctly highlights how the drug issue in schools feeds into the ever-increasing crime rate.
We cannot expect teachers to deal with the criminal aspect of the Drug problem in Schools.
Comment; There is no evidence that police actively tried to address this issue- possibly seen as a School problem.
Full story at https://caainc.org.au/drug-scourge-in-schools/?
Class War
by CAA | Oct 8, 2018 |
Apart from the obvious advantages of a safer community overall, the proposal to reintroduce the Police In Schools Program to Primary Schools and embed police in Secondary Schools (PISP) would see a substantial increase in safety for teachers.
The Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) has submitted the PISP proposal to both the Government and the Opposition. However, only the Liberal Opposition has embraced and announced the inclusion of a PISP in their policy.
This initiative would be the most effective way to keep our children safe, help protect our educators and reduce stress and achieve better educational outcomes for our children.
Comment; Twelve months later, after multiple representations, no action was taken.
Full story https://caainc.org.au/class-war/?
500 children stalked
by CAA | Nov 8, 2018 |
What a shocking headline, and to think this is the tip of the iceberg.
Most perpetrators are children, so the response is even more alarming than the problem.
The implied strategy to prosecute indicates the failed Law and Order principles applied in this State, where it is more important to prosecute than prevent the offence in the first place.
Many perpetrators, children as young as ten, have barely learnt that there can be consequences to their actions and charging a few kids will not help many victims.
To argue that it will be a deterrent is absolute rubbish.
The severity and the effect of the problem must not be understated. It can devastate the victim, but handling it in a draconian fashion will inevitably lead to more significant problems.
We must be about preventing or managing the problem.
Comment; In 2018 we did not predict that any government would be so inept as to raise the age of criminal responsibility, but they are considering doing so. The consequences of that flawed proposal are yet to be fully realised. But this shocking revelation in relation to stalking only further motivated the CAA to take action, and that is when we decided in 2019 to act where VicPol and the Government would not.
Full story https://caainc.org.au/500-children-stalked/?
Police Veterans in Schools launch
by CAA | Dec 29, 2019
The Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) proposes developing a structured school-based program entitled the Police Veterans in Schools Program (PVISP). The pilot program aims to identify the feasibility of using retired and former police members to deliver a program to teach children community values, the role of police and the law and a suite of victim reduction strategies. Central to this program is building relationships between young people and police so that respect can be developed for the policing function.
Comment; From frustration and inaction by VicPol, the CAA designed and built a School-based program to be delivered by Police Veterans to dovetail with the State school’s curriculum. The CAA recruited a number of Schools who were very enthusiastic and equally enthusiastic retired police to operate a Pilot to demonstrate the program’s effectiveness. But unfortunately, the day the program was to start, COVID hit, stopping the program.
From day one VicPol was invited to be involved in the CAA initiative.
Full story at https://caainc.org.au/police-veterans/
TIME FOR DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOLS AND ELSEWHERE?
by CAA | Feb 5, 2020 |
On Feb 6 2020, The Age education editor, Adam Carey, reported that a global survey shows Australian classrooms are among the least disciplined in the world.
Learning time is lost to noise and disorder, and many students cannot work well in class.
Australia ranked 70th out of 77 participating nations in the OECD’s 2018 index of disciplinary climate.
Coupled with the abysmal level of Australian students learning Maths, it is high time that discipline is reintroduced into all classrooms.
The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. (CAA) will introduce police veterans into selected schools in 2020. Our program (PVISP) was launched on Nov 23 2019, and sought to instil in students the basic tenets of good citizenship and provide students with the skills to avoid becoming involved in crime or being victimised.
Comment; How much better position would we now be in had these early warnings been heeded? To blame COVID is an absolute cop-out, as a little creative application could have introduced the concept to the school population and would have helped and been superior to the current approach. But we are now twelve months out of COVID, and still, inaction is the outcome. How many warnings must there be?
Full story at https://caainc.org.au/time-for-discipline-in-schools-and-elsewhere/?
CHIEF COMMISSIONER SLAMS POLICE VETERAN VOLUNTEERS
by CAA | Feb 16, 2020 |
Commissioner Ashton’s letter to the School Principals was blatantly designed to undermine the Police Veteran’s School volunteers. He set out a broad raft of mainly reactive claims that allegedly are applied somehow to schools.
The problem is schools generally know nothing about it. It can only be described as spin.
School principals that have contacted us are either angry or confused because they never see what Ashton claims to be happening. Instead, they embraced the Police Veterans In Schools Program (PVISP).
Comment; Even with Ashton’s letter to schools criticising and distancing VicPol from the program, most schools still wanted to proceed, if only on an informal basis. Aggravating the letter, an internal memo was sent by VicPol to all police stations directing them not to cooperate with schools involved in the program or members of the CAA. Even so, the school’s commitments generally did not wain; however, COVID ended that.
Full story https://caainc.org.au/chief-commissioner-slams-police-veteran- volunteers/?
To all fellow Victorians –
Open letter by Kel Glare, former Chief Commissioner and Chair of the CAA.
by CAA | Mar 24, 2021 |
Victoria, do not underestimate the importance of the announcement by Chief Commissioner Patton of a Police in Schools Program (PISP) (Herald Sun 24/3/21).
This change in the policing approach is very significant and will have a positive impact on the lives of us all.
The failure of former Police Chief Commissioners to re-implement this important Policing strategy is partly responsible for the increased crime rates in past years, particularly in serious crimes committed by juveniles.
The reintroduction of a structured PISP has been the cornerstone and the basis for the formation of the Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. (CAA), which I have the privilege to chair.
As a group, we have worked for six years for this outcome, and we unreservedly congratulate Chief Commissioner Patton for reintroducing this program.
At this time, we were very heartened when the current Chief Commissioner, Shane Patton APM announced that VicPol would finally implement a formal Police schools program for Victoria.
Comment; Unfortunately, two years later, we are yet to see the Chief Commissioners’ commitment realised.
We do not question the commitment and intent of the Chief as we believe he was genuine. Still, we are advised that he struck headwinds from other Senior executives who coincidently featured in the era when former Commissioner Nixon cancelled the project originally. Ashton followed through attempting to stop the reintroduction, all be it by veterans not impacting the Police resource argument.
The objectors can be easily identified by their lack of policing skills and poor understanding of proactive policing, the most effective type. The need to replace these people with enlightened and competent executives has never been more urgent.
Full story at https://caainc.org.au/to-all-fellow-victorians/
Victoria Police have rolled out justification for not introducing a formal police schools program, and the list of police activities in schools at first glance is impressive until closer examination reveals a huge serving of spin is all it is.
Police attending schools on an ad-hoc basis with no structured curriculum is both inane and inept akin to smoke and mirrors. It is also the easy way out, just playing with the kids.
It is flawed dramatically, with no ability to measure outcomes or coordinate and target issues of concern with no ability to modify to rising challenges.
The current approach is similar Police Lecture Squad of many years ago. This allegedly highly trained Police team visited schools on a full-time basis and prided itself on its specialist status.
It featured prominently in Annual Reports and was seen as the frontline in working with kids.
This Team were briefed about a severe problem in a particular school and tasked to rearrange their schedule to address the issue urgently.
After much resistance, the Team arranged to see the school at an assembly of the whole school. (Avoiding confronting the age group responsible for the concerns)
To the amazement and embarrassment of their supervisors, the Team presented a short dissertation on pedestrian road safety and did not address or mention the serious issue the school faced.
As a direct result, the Team was disbanded and transferred to Operational Duties.
Where this Chief Commissioner is facing headwinds either in executive management or at the coordinating level, those placing the roadblocks or are unable to perform their task must be removed, and competent people deployed to the function.
Our children deserve that much.
We can either sit clutching our pearls and wringing our hands, milling around in feckless indignant circles, while our children’s futures, our most valuable possession, are infected and ravaged by the psychopathic self interested parasites with their sterile industrialized version of society, or we can take things back to the system that was in place when things were operating at peak societal benefit. There is overwhelming evidence of that previous system, how it was framed, of its usefulness and universal flexibility and of its efficacy in operation. It is unforgivable that it was removed without our permission. It is utterly despicable that we knew it was being done, but did nothing about it. Now our precious children and all subsequent generations are to pay the worst price. We apathetically gave a string of pearls, the core of our elevated civilization and pristine future for our children: to mindless and status driven apes. That system was developed and refined over millennia to service our youth and the futures they were allowed to create, as we and those before us proved, based on a stable and fully refined formulae perfected over thousands of years by millions of far better qualified and ethically aligned minds than the malignant cockroaches of populist self indulgence that currently run its replacement. Geniuses made that system and humanists familiar with ethical application put the gloss on it that still shines after the seven or so decades since its rape and clandestine removal. We know how it operated and we know the benefits and advancements it allowed for. Its framework and content are still in pristine condition in the plans and infrastructure prepared and in the evidence of its operation and testing over the vastness of time. There was no need to replace it because it was as perfect and perfectly fitted, refined to any need a wholesome human society could want for its proper, supportive and comfortable continuance. It can and should be reinstated exactly as it was, as it still fits requirements perfectly, because the human animal it was built for is identical to those that preceded it and will continue as for the next dozen millennia or so. The abomination in play today suits only the demented parasites that introduced it, playing with it and re-arranging things until it became an ill fitting shambles masquerading as something it is not. It wont get any better no matter how long they fiddle with it. The only thing produced out of it as any ill-conceived production line, are the manic, twisted and semi aborted expectations our youth now have to battle with. No longer a benefit and no longer a friendly and fertile field to grow upon and so our young can only wonder in confused despair, why the environment they exist in, is not at all fitted to the instructions as presented. We can either fight for the proper and tested future for our children and have it re-instated as we who remember enjoyed, or we can sit and watch in comfortable and undisturbed insulated numbness while our children are intellectually raped, tortured, tormented and reduced to a level ‘before’ civilization: open to every type and kind of abuse, degradation and loss as our new masters would wish for them. These are our children, innocent and hopeful, trusting us to protect them and who give us unconditional love and openness in expectation of the same. We give them a mine field full of emptiness and pointlessness with more road blocks than any war zone and expect them to be the same as we had the advantage to be. Not particularly rational or fair is it? If we don’t fight in every way for them and with them to re-instate what was for a very long and successful time, the best and most productive system devised, because we may disturb our comfortable self indulgent niches, then we should never have been born ourselves. The system that once was worked for a very very long time and is not made redundant or ill fitting no matter what technological advancement is made: it is universal and fits in any situation or change …the system currently put in operation will destroy us all and any hope of a stable, fair or comfortable future when it fails.
Tragically, there is no longer respect for authority, be it police, teachers, ambos or other service providers.
I believe that the core of the problems our society is facing today is the insane political correctness which governs just about every facet of our lives. The days when teachers were respected and listened to are truly gone! My daughter is a deputy principal in a primary school in NSW. The stories she tells us are quite horrific. How even young children behave, what foul language they use how they interact with teachers, swearing at them, displaying violent behaviour. Poor teachers are powerless to do anything. Not even verbal reprimand is allowed as the child could suffer irreparable psychological damage! The situation is so farcical that the teachers are not allowed to address the students by their first name because what if the child did not like his/her name! Calling students “boys and girls” is a definite no no. We know why. No wonder that all this may escalate in tragically ending violence later on.
It is an insane world and no wonder that there is acute shortage of teachers and police. Who would want to join the police force to be spat on, verbally and physically abused? If police take well justified action it is likely that there will be departmental repercussion as the offender/s are bound to complain about police brutality.
Yes, the system is surely to be blamed. But what about the parents? The behaviours are learned at home. Suffice to see some parents these days and you immediately think of the poor kids growing up in that family environment.
In the meantime the silent majority is ridiculed and controlled by the vocal minority. Unfortunately it is very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It is about time people protest against the insanity that is leading toward the moral disintegration of our society.