An independent review has made 19 recommendations for improvements at a Canterbury high school, where parents claim their children were repeatedly bullied.
The probe into Ashburton College has incited fury among some parents as – in an apparent contradiction – it found the school had done what was expected of it, even though some policy expectations weren't met.
It follows a 1News investigation in September, which uncovered 16 allegations of bullying over eight years. Several parents claim their children became suicidal. Two students, aged 13 and 14, allegedly attempted suicide this year.
In the final report, independent reviewer Suzie Sauer found Ashburton College had taken the actions expected under its "Concerns and Complaints" policy. The school had, her report said, sometimes even exceeded expectations.
But at the same time, the review identified a list of 11 "unmet policy expectations" in relation to the school's response to a few of the bullying complaints, and made 19 recommendations to improve the handling of complaints.
Sauer described how staff had sometimes failed to listen to student's full concerns before acting. Parents had not been "consistently informed" when their child was involved in bullying behaviour, she said.
Other concerns had gone unaddressed due to a lack of evidence or because they happened outside of school. Some victims had suffered retaliation after staff tried to intervene. And the college had not been consistently following up to see if concerns had been resolved.
The list of issues was "concerning" to bullying expert Cara Swit of the University of Canterbury.
"If there's even one student who feels unsafe at school, there's enough reason to be reviewing policies and procedures and making changes," she said.
She added the report lacked a "student voice", and said it showed inconsistencies across the school.
"When our students know there's inconsistencies in what we do, they don't feel safe, they don't know what to expect," she said.
"In terms of the possible retaliation as well, if a student discloses incidences of bullying and they experience retaliation, it's very unlikely that they're going to report the bullying in the future."
Some of the families have also taken issue with the report, saying they feel the school wants to cover everything up to get it out of the limelight.
It comes after Sauer found credibility issues with some of the bullying stories.
Sauer reviewed nine complaints laid between 2017 - when the school's current principal Ross Preece began his tenure - and 2022. She could not find evidence for some of the incidents, describing them as "unsubstantiated".
Sauer also deemed parts of two of the complaints as false, saying an Ashburton College investigation had found video footage and school attendance records. She did not specify which complaints these were, making any rebuttal or independent verification impossible.
"Throughout my investigation it was noted that Ashburton College staff showed care and concern for students and were proactive in preventing and addressing situations," her report reads.
The report left a mother of a bullied student, who wanted to remain anonymous to protect her child, feeling "ignored" by the school.
"Whatever we've said has been hidden," she said. "[It feels like] our children don't matter."
'We had no advice from anyone'
The report was commissioned after parents accused it of ignoring bullying allegations. (Source: 1News)
The review also claims that the cries for help never reached the top of the school, saying no complaints of "student bullying behaviour" were brought to the principal or school board at any time in the last five years.
Sauer said the only complaints of that nature came from the 1News investigation - which found 16 allegations over eight years – but that claim was met with incredulity by several families.
One mother provided an email showing she contacted Preece in August, including his response.
"I was told it was not worthy of being investigated, I was told that she was absent from school when she wasn't even absent," she said, speaking under condition of anonymity to provide privacy for her child.
A former student, who said she left the school after experiencing bullying, also claims she met with Preece in person to complain.
"He was in the room with me, my mum and my dad, so complaints were given to him," she said.
However, it appears Ashburton College has relied on a technicality.
In a statement, the school said Preece has an "oversight role" and is involved if disciplinary action is required, but claimed, that since 2017, no complaint had been raised under their formal "Concerns and Complaints" process.
That comes as a surprise to several families, many of whom contacted the school in several different ways.
"We had no advice from anyone," one mother said, also speaking anonymously to protect her child.
"We went to the ministry, we went to the college, we went to the police, we went to NetSafe, and no one told us that we should be contacting the principal or the board of trustees or anything like that if we were unhappy."
In a joint statement, signed by Ross Preece and board chairman Jen Muir, the school stressed the review was "very thorough" and from an independent expert.
"We cannot say strongly enough that we take very seriously our responsibilities to provide a healthy and safe environment for our students," the pair said.
"Matters arise in schools across the country, every day, and schools – including ours – work very hard to address these as best as possible."
But one of the mothers feels it's all lip service.
"Without people like us standing up and saying it's got to stop, it will keep continuing," she said.
Ashburton College said many of the recommendations are underway. It promised to implement all 19 by next year.
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