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1. Anti-vaxxers blamed for outbreak of whooping cough in Queensland town.
A health expert has slammed parents for not vaccinating their children after 19 students of north-Brisbane primary school contracted whooping cough.
Kilcoy State School is working with Queensland Health following the outbreak.
A research fellow at the University of Queensland, Matthew Cooper, said the anti-vaccination movement was partly to blame.
Top Comments
SO much reaction to a story. The facts need to be acquired. Any manager responsible for the safety of staff and students in a school context must ensure that they implement systems and processes to protect everyone! That in itself is what contributes to these types of stories where public schools have to accept every type of students and every type of behaviour and just manage it. Teachers are trained to teach a specific subject, most have no training in psychology and the management of students with special needs rests with people who have trained in special needs....and they are hard to recruit, because they as a worker are subject to biting, hitting, punching, kicking, stabbing etc by violent students; and the other students are also put at this same risk....everyday.
The reality is, integration does not work in a public school context with buildings that are not designed to accommodate students with violent behaviours, or children with violent propensity. Everyone is on edge in that context. The community has to accept that some children are unmanageable without some type of restraint. The use of the "cage" needs to be reviewed in light of the level of violent behaviour displayed by the child, how often the "cage" was used, what risks this particular student posed to self and other students, because many of you will be reactive to a story "violent student hurts student in public school playground", and accuse a school of not protecting the other students. Under federal legislation workplace health and safety overrides all state education policies, and therefore before accusing a principal of treating one child like an animal, you need to understand and acquire more information. Yes on the surface it sounds dreadful. However what is the behaviour that the other students and staff are dealing with? Why was the need for the cage introduced...why not just expel the dangerous student...because public schools have to show that they have tried to accommodate all types of students with all types of intellectual, emotional and behavioural issues. That is an unrealistic ask...in my opinion.
The school that I am at states that the disability act sits side by side the occ health and safety act. Many parents would have you believe that the disability act overrides it!! However, it apparently has equal weight so you can't just expel a students with disabilities, in fact various heads of education have stated that students with disabilities will not be expelled in the public system.
I doubt its actually a cage. I have heard of other instances where children with special needs are placed in special purpose isolation areas when they are upset, scared, angry and are basically out of control. For their own safety, the safety of staff and the other children.
Two of my children have shared a classroom with children with special needs whose behaviour was unpredictable and during a rage they threw scissors and chairs at the teacher and the other kids. No such isolation room or 'cage' at this school and my kids were terrified. Thats not ok either. They dont have a violent home so its not acceptable to be exposed to that at school.
Of course the child needs to be protected and treated with respect however they also have a duty of care to the other children in the class.