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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
FIRST PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 1879
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Parents naive on dangers of cyber-bullying By Myles Hume Cyber-bullying is a growing problem in Mid Canterbury primary schools and experts say parents underestimate its complexities. According to educators parents are naive to think that the youngest children are not vulnerable as some as young as eight are susceptible to the modern day attacks. The warning comes after an awareness production by Perform! Educational Musicals that visited Ashburton Borough School’s year five to eight pupils yesterday, warning the youngsters about the potential dangers of social media and texting. Speaking before the performance, actor Alice Canton said many youngsters did not know the appropriate use of cell phones and social media, which, if misused, could have a lasting effect on fellow pupils. Cyber-bullying was often highlighted as a concern in Mid Canterbury’s colleges, but Ms Canton said it went deeper than that. “It’s increasingly becoming a way for children to bully, kids have moved away from bullying in the playground,” she said. Her acting counterpart Brett O’Neill said many teachers and parents did not know the complexity of cyber-bullying and “often thanked him” for heightening awareness. Ashburton Borough principal Sam Winterbourn said the dan-
HOW TO COUNTER THE BULLIES Tell people you trust; parents, teachers, friends Do not reply to comments or texts Save evidence; it could be used to report to school or police Physical threats can be reported to police Any abuse, tell your school Source: Netsafe
gers of cyber space was “going to be a constant message to children”. “I think it would be naive to think it doesn’t happen in primary schools, even bearing in mind that no one younger than 13 is meant to have a Facebook page, it’s just hearsay, but I have heard children as young as seven with them.” Mr Winterbourn said parents needed to wake up and could not assume cyber-bullying would not affect their children nor could they presume “their kid is robust enough to handle it”. The musical skit, performed in front of more than 120 Ashburton Borough youngsters, saw the two actors take on four different characters, all who were technologically savvy. The story was based around a girl called Emma who is the new girl at school. She is “friended” by a boy called Dylan on Facebook, but rumours soon begin to circulate that she is
adding others boy friends online, which leads to her becoming an outcast at school. The bullying intensifies online and it leads her to writing a message on Facebook: “You win school, you won’t be able to hurt me any more”. The skit also comes as St Bede’s College in Christchurch stood down four pupils after a photo of three of them hanging another pupil over a rubbish bin, which was circulated online by the fourth pupil. Just last week, both Ashburton College principal Grant McMillan and Mount Hutt College principal John Schreurs highlighted their concern over cyber-bullying which was made easier by sites such as Ask.fm and Tumblr where users could post anonymous opinions. A local youth worker, Poppy Vear, said many youngsters did not know the impact of online abuse, which often came “with little consequences”.
Photo Kirsty Clay 210513-KC-008
Hampstead School pupils Alazhay Rogan, 11, (left) with fellow milk monitor Hayley Tallentire, 10, are giving the thumbs up to Fonterra’s new Milk For Schools initiative which only hit Mid Canterbury this week.
Milk makes it to Hampstead School By Myles Hume Only two days into it, and Hampstead School already have the new Milk For Schools initiative down to a fine art. The Mid Canterbury school was one of the first in the district to receive free milk, fridges and blue recycling bins this week as part of Fonterra’s multi-million dollar scheme to bring milk back into New Zealand schools. Yesterday, Hampstead School showed the Guardian how they distributed the milk among their pupils, many of whom had already taken a keen likening to
the pasteurised boxed liquid. Each day two year six milk monitors are tasked with opening the stocked fridge and handing out the milk to their peers. “We take the trolley around to the classrooms and ask them how much they want and then leave it there for them,” yesterday’s milk monitor Alazhay Rogan, 11, said. “It tastes really good, I’ve already had four today.” After downing their milk, the pupils then fold the boxes in a particular way, which are then thrown into large plastic bags and put in supplied big blue recycling bins. Principal Peter Melrose said
a milk man then comes from Timaru once a week to estimate how much milk the school will need for the approaching week and takes away the recycling. He said the boxes are then taken to Thailand to be made into school books and plastic roof tiles. “We did this because I think it is such a great thing for nutrition, there’s plenty of fruit juices and cordials out there and this is a great way to promote something nutritious for kids,” Mr Melrose said. He said many pupils had promptly returned their permission slips to drink milk at school,
and he expected the number of keen youngsters to grow. Netherby School is expecting the new initiative to be rolled out to their pupils today, and several other Mid Canterbury schools have indicated they will be getting on board with the scheme. Carly Robinson, Fonterra group general manager of global cooperative social responsibility, said it was a worthwhile venture for one of New Zealand’s biggest companies. “This programme is our commitment to helping improve the health of New Zealand’s children and to moving Kiwi kids back to milk,” Ms Robinson says.
Men’s prowess in the kitchen fails to ignite local women By Sue Newman Cooking a meal for your wife or partner may not be a fast track to the bedroom, Ashburton women say. Upping the ante in the kitchen has been identified in a national survey as increasing the amount of affection women give to their husbands or partners. But some Ashburton women say a better performance in the kitchen won’t make a jot of difference in the bedroom stakes. Tegel asked more than 1700 New Zealand women about their men’s cooking habits and found that Kiwi men are thwarting their chances in the bedroom by their lack of effort in the kitchen. A quarter of women said they would feel more affectionate towards their partners if they cooked regularly.
Women spoken to on the street in Ashburton yesterday found there are plenty of men who do their fair share of cooking, but there are others whose culinary skills are so bad that cooking more often wouldn’t raise their desirability in their partner’s eyes. While Angela Hammond gave the question a resounding yes, saying more effort in the kitchen could mean a good night every night for her husband, Fiona Stuart said there’d need to be plenty of improvement in the quality of her husband’s cooking before she upped the affection ante. “Cordon bleu it’s not,” she said. A number of women said their husbands or partners were already pretty good cooks and did their fair share of cooking, while others said they’d be happy to trade cooking off for cleaning up. Others said that better efforts in the kitchen by their partners were
unlikely to make any difference in the affection stakes. The Tegel survey came up with five barriers to men cooking: 1. Lack of time 2. Women tend to take control 3. He has never had to 4. He doesn’t consider it his role 5. Lack of skill Pyschologist Sara Chatwin believes the key to getting men cooking is encouragement. “Traditionally we have socialised men to leave the cooking up to the women, however nowadays the kitchen is much more accessible to men.” Cooking shows showing men in the lead role in the kitchen had helped to break down the negative stereotypes reinforcing the idea that the kitchen is a female domain and women could reinforce that by stepping back and praising men for taking initiatives in the kitchen, she said.
Do you wish your partner would cook and if he did would you feel more affectionate towards him?
Angela Hammond
Lynne Cordery
Mandy Driver
Fiona Putt
Fiona Stuart
“Yes, absolutely yes. I’d definitely be more affectionate – every night.”
“It wouldn’t make any difference. I cook and he washes up.”
“He’s a fantastic cook and cooks quite often. We’re a very affectionate household.”
“I’d prefer he didn’t cook and if he did it would make no difference on the affection side.”
“Not with the meals he makes. They’re not Cordon Bleu. He’d need to improve first.”
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