School's tough stance draws 'wide support'

The headteacher told us he was given a standing ovation by staff this week when he announced his decision to expel eight students involved in a “blatant assault” on a 14-year-old student. The incident — described as a birthday punches ritual that went wrong — left the victim needing hospital treatment for a fractured rib and has sparked a police inquiry.

Mr. Staunton accepts there has been a backlash from some of the parents of the teenagers involved in the incident, which was recorded on a cellphone camera.

But he said he has also received more than 50 e-mails and calls of support over his disciplinary action.

He said safety was the number one concern for parents who sent their children to private schools. And he stated that ensuring every student could come to school without fear of physical harm was his primary concern.

“If this is not stamped out quickly and fairly what is the next step?

“I don’t want to be headmaster of a school where the next incident is a knifing in the hallway.”

Mr. Staunton, who is in his second year as head at the $18,000-a-year school, said children had been told that any form of bullying or violence was unacceptable.

He said the decision to expel the eight boys, all aged 14 and 15, should serve as an example that the school was serious.

“The messages have been very clear — it is virtually zero tolerance on this kind of behaviour.

“If the school didn’t deal with this in a firm way we would have no credibility in emphasizing student behaviour going forwards.

“Hopefully five years from now somebody will look back on this as a watershed moment where the school took a firm stand as a result of an unfortunate incident.”

The incident on December 16, the last day of term before Christmas, started as ‘birthday punches’ — a ritual where kids get friendly punches on the arm.

It quickly escalated with some of the students kneeing, kicking and punching the boy, who was celebrating his 14th birthday, for around a minute.

Mr. Staunton said the bulk of the assault was captured on video by another student. He had initially deleted the footage but it was recovered by police technical experts.

“The tape is very clear. It starts with kneeing and escalates into very damaging vicious punches. You can see the boy is injured he doubles over — anyone would recognize that this boy is hurt.

“This was a blatant assault in the middle of the day out of sight of parents and teachers.”

The victim was treated for a fractured rib, bruising and swelling to his body and arms and “mild concussion”.

Mr Staunton said the students involved in the attack, which took place on the stairs of the Gosling Centre during morning recess, were old enough to know their behaviour was over the line.

He said it was impossible to single out individual culprits and they were all equally culpable.

“Even on a casual viewing of the tape, you would come to the conclusion that all of these boys played a prominent part in this.”

He accepted that the punishment would be a set-back for the boys involved. But he said he would help to get them placed at new schools.

Higher standards

“All of these issues are weighed very carefully I recognize that this is going to put a serious wrinkle, or a serious gap, in their education.  I have always felt that these schools (independent private schools) need to have higher standards.”

He said the decision had drawn support from staff and parents as well as the wider community. One email of support from a fellow Bermudian teacher, working in New York, stated: “I believe your actions show that you take bullying seriously. Your zero-tolerance sends a message to the school and the community that you have made a commitment to keep students safe.”

Mr. Staunton said Saltus should be a safe haven from the violence that was affecting the rest of Bermuda, especially the youth.

And he said many parents sent their children to the school because they felt certain they would be safe.

“We are very much aware of the issues that are taking place in Bermuda and the tendency for gang violence, drug use, weapon use and so-on.

“I don’t think a day goes by where we don’t draw to the students’ attention to how lucky they are to be at Saltus, if they take advantage of it. They have good teachers, a safe and secure environment and the opportunity to participate in a large realm of activities.”

He said the incident was particularly disheartening because the school had gone to great lengths in past months to emphasize the importance of respect and good behaviour.

Canadian anti-bullying group Dare to Care visited the school in October, speaking to every student and hundreds of parents about the damaging consequences of physical and emotional abuse.

“From the start of the school year, the emphasis was on respect safety and security and trying to curb tendencies like these ritual birthday punches.”

He said young people were subjected to numerous influences in the media, video games and television and needed a clear example at school about what was acceptable and what was not.

He added: “Private schools should be emphasizing more than just academics. Good values are just as important – honesty, integrity, responsibility and a passion for learning.

“We developed a new mission statement as a school emphasizing those values, so we were generally very surprised that an occurrence of this magnitude would take place – we are quite shocked and disillusioned.”

Mr. Staunton, who took over at Saltus in September 2009 after a 37-year career at some of Canada’s top private schools, said he had put extra emphasis on good behaviour as the key to higher standards in all areas at the school.

He added: “I am really trying to raise the bar in everything we are doing.”

He said the school had created new opportunities for students over the past 18-months with its compulsory extra-curricular programme offering sports, music and dance every night of the week.