(G'day bloggermates, this story not happened in Canberra ACT Australia but in Woodberry Public School, near Maitland in the New South Wales Hunter Valley Australia)
Bullied schoolboy may get $1m in damages
May 14, 2007 - 11:54AM
A troubled teenager is set to receive record damages of around $1 million after successfully suing the NSW government over being bullied at primary school.
Justice Carolyn Simpson concluded the school had "grossly failed" in its duty of care to Benjamin Cox, who now suffers from a severe psychiatric condition.
Mr Cox, now 18, was aged six and seven when he was regularly bullied by an older, disturbed pupil at Woodberry Public School, near Maitland in the NSW Hunter Valley.
The judge found the school's responses to repeated complaints by his mother, Angela Cox, were "dismally inadequate".
"His adolescence has been all but destroyed; his adulthood will not be any better," the judge said in the NSW Supreme Court.
"He will never know the satisfaction of employment.
"He will suffer anxiety and depression, almost certainly, for the rest of his life.
"He is unlikely to form any relationships, romantic or platonic.
"He has no friends and is unlikely to make any."
While the exact amount of damages has not yet been calculated, Mr Cox's legal team expects it to be around $1 million, thought to be a record in a school bullying case.
Monday's climax of the case coincided with a federal government move to give teachers and principals more power to address schoolyard bullying, and provide parents with more information about discipline, bullying and poor behaviour.
Mr Cox's case may also open the way for substantial damages awards for other bullying victims, lawyers said.
Mrs Cox gave evidence of her son becoming "absolutely petrified" of going to school, particularly after his tormentor tried to strangle him in February 1995.
When she complained about the school's inaction, she said a Department of Education officer told her "bullying builds character".
Her son continued to have nightmares and headaches, cried all the time and developed a severe stutter.
The little boy refused to use public toilets after telling his mother the older pupil jumped out from buildings - including the school toilets - and scared him.
Once she was called to the school office to find her son crying, with a lower tooth missing and a bleeding lip.
He told her the older boy had "tried to shove his jumper down his throat".
Justice Simpson accepted Mr Cox was subjected to "harassment, bullying and assault" at the hands of the other boy.
She also accepted that Mrs Cox made repeated attempts to have the school authorities intervene and control the conduct of the other boy.
"The staff made no attempt to deal with a serious problem", the judge added.
"The school authorities responded quite inadequately to an escalating problem and failed to take such steps as were reasonably required to protect (Benjamin) from the conduct of a plainly behaviourally disturbed older pupil."
When Mrs Cox took her son out of the school in September 1995, she told the principal she was not going to submit him to any more bullying or hurting.
She said the principal told her: "You lose some kids and keep some".
Justice Simpson accepted psychiatric evidence that Benjamin had been a "very vulnerable" boy, having a genetic predisposition to depression or other such conditions.
But she also accepted that the bullying was the initiating factor which led to his current condition - variously described as Separation Anxiety Disorder; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depression.
The NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) is examining avenues for appeal.
A spokesman for the DET said lawyers were currently reading the judgment to see if there were grounds to lodge an appeal.
"The lawyers are examining the judgment to see what the options of an appeal are," he said.
The DET spokesman said that bullying was "not acceptable then" and is "not acceptable now" adding that a range of measures had been introduced in the 13 years since this incident.
"We have been strengthening the ability of schools to deal with bullying issues," the spokesman said.
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Bullied teen awarded income for life
Benjamin and his mother, Angela, at court in February.
Photo: Channel Ten
May 14, 2007
A bullied teenager will receive substantial damages and an income for life after a Supreme Court judge found NSW educational authorities failed in their duty of care to deal with playground assaults and bullying.
Benjamin Cox's mother, Angela, sued the State of NSW on behalf of the Hunter Valley teenager.
He will receive at least $220,000 for pain and suffering.
She said the bullying, which started in infants school, had resulted in her son having little education and being unable to work.
Outside court his barrister, Dennis Wheelahan, QC, said the judgement had implications for the education system.
"The implications are that pupils in our school systems who are the subject of this type of conduct [if liability is established] can expect to recover substantial damages as is the case for Benjamin Cox."
In her judgement, delivered today, Justice Carolyn Simpson commented that Mr Cox's "adolescence has been all but destroyed; his adulthood will not be any better. He will never know the satisfaction of employment. He will suffer anxiety and depression, almost certainly, for the rest of his life".
During the case, the judge heard that, while at Woodberry Public School in 1995, Mr Cox was "throttled" by an older boy, and received compensation from the Victims Compensation Tribunal over the attack. By the time he went to high school, his mother said he thought school a "scary proposition".
"He didn't like crowds, he didn't like teachers, didn't like the work," she said.
The court heard Mr Cox, who is now 18, was a virtual recluse. He had only completed schooling up until the end of year 7, and an attempt at home schooling had failed.
His mother said he rarely went out, had no friends, and was on a pension.
"He just locks himself in his room playing PlayStation games," she said.
AAP reports: While the exact amount of damages has not yet been calculated, Mr Cox's legal team expects it to be about $1 million, thought to be a record in a school bullying case.
Today's climax of the case coincided with a Federal Government move to give teachers and principals more power to address schoolyard bullying, and provide parents with more information about discipline, bullying and poor behaviour.
Mr Cox's case might also open the way for substantial damages awards for other bullying victims, lawyers said.
Mrs Cox gave evidence of her son becoming "absolutely petrified" of going to school, particularly after his tormentor tried to strangle him in February 1995.
When she complained about the school's inaction, she said a Department of Education officer told her "bullying builds character".
Her son continued to have nightmares and headaches, cried all the time and developed a severe stutter.
The little boy refused to use public toilets after telling his mother the older pupil jumped out from buildings - including the school toilets - and scared him.
Once she was called to the school office to find her son crying, with a lower tooth missing and a bleeding lip.
He told her the older boy had "tried to shove his jumper down his throat".
Justice Simpson accepted Mr Cox was subjected to "harassment, bullying and assault" at the hands of the other boy.
She also accepted that Mrs Cox made repeated attempts to have the school authorities intervene and control the conduct of the other boy.
"The staff made no attempt to deal with a serious problem," the judge added.
"The school authorities responded quite inadequately to an escalating problem and failed to take such steps as were reasonably required to protect [Mr Cox] from the conduct of a plainly behaviourally disturbed older pupil."
When Mrs Cox took her son out of the school in September 1995, she told the principal she was not going to submit him to any more bullying or hurting.
She said the principal told her: "You lose some kids and keep some."
Justice Simpson accepted psychiatric evidence that Mr Cox had been a "very vulnerable" boy, having a genetic predisposition to depression or other such conditions.
But she also accepted that the bullying was the initiating factor that led to his current condition - variously described as separation anxiety disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
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He was bullied at school - now he'll walk away with $1 million
May 15, 2007
BEN COX has no friends. He is unlikely to make any in the future, or form any romantic relationships. At 18, his teenage life has "all but been destroyed", and his adult life will be no better.
He will never know the satisfaction of a job, and anxiety and depression will be his likely companions for the rest of his life.
With this bleak forecast, the Supreme Court's Justice Carolyn Simpson yesterday found schoolboy bullying was to blame and Mr Cox was entitled to compensation.
In what is believed to be the biggest school bullying damages award in NSW, Mr Cox's legal team estimates the reclusive Hunter Valley teenager will receive about $1 million, giving him an income for life and superannuation.
About $213,000 of the award is for his pain and suffering.
Justice Simpson found authorities "grossly failed" him when he was in kindergarten and year 1 at Woodberry Public School by failing to protect him from repeated assaults, bullying and harassment by an older, disturbed student.
During one attack he was "throttled" and lost consciousness, and in another had a tooth knocked out when the bully tried to make him eat his jumper.
When his mother, Angela Cox, contacted the Department of Education and complained that the school had done nothing to stop the attacks, she said she was told that "bullying builds character and [the officer, Ian Wilson] thought it was a good thing Ben got bullied".
In his class photograph, above, one of many signs on the wall behind the children read: "If I hit a bully it makes me a bully.'
Another read: "To have a friend I must be a friend."
Since the bullying in 1994 and 1995, Mr Cox has seen pediatricians, psychiatrists and counsellors and was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, a separation anxiety disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.
He transferred to Black Hill Primary School where he settled well but continued to spend days at home with his mother, who herself had significant anxiety and depression. His schooling effectively ended in year 7. He is on a disability pension and, according to his mother, spends most of his time in his bedroom playing PlayStation.
The state of NSW had argued that it was his mother's emotional and psychiatric condition which had fostered Mr Cox's avoidance of school. A spokesman for the Education Department said it was examining avenues for appeal.
Justice Simpson accepted the opinion of a psychiatrist who said: "Had, at the time of the bullying, Ben been a completely normal child with no genetic history … it is my opinion more probable than not that he would have recovered from the trauma of bullying. [But] he was not a normal child. There was a genetic vulnerability."
Outside court, Mr Cox's barrister, Dennis Wheelahan, QC, said: "The implications are that pupils in our school systems who are the subject of this type of conduct [if liability is established] can expect to recover substantial damages as is the case for Benjamin Cox. This is a matter I know school authorities view differently now to the way they did 12 years ago when these series of events occurred."
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and oh yeah, jackaroo-jumbuckies, remember most copyrighted © 2007 AAP
Ik ben zeer in de verleiding gekomen om iets te schrijven over Sonja. Om wéér iets te schrijven over Sonja. Sonja Barend. En ik weet dat het jeugdsentiment is, maar, eerlijk waar, ik heb zoveel aan haar uitzendingen gehad - ik denk werkelijk dat ik mede door de Sonja-uitzendingen ben gevormd. Dus ik doe het toch maar even. Voor mezelf dan maar.
