Push for parents who defame teachers online to be fined $1000

The penalty was floated by Victoria’s Independent Office for School Dispute Resolution chair Frank Handy as research shows offensive behaviour by parents and caregivers towards school staff continues to escalate.

Gossip and slander has peaked at 65 per cent, while cyber bulling is up by nearly 88 per cent, according to Australian Catholic University’s 2024 Australian Principals’ Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing survey.

Shadow education minister Jess Wilson said parent and classroom behaviour in schools was an area the coalition wants to focus on “in the coming years”.

“This is a problem for teachers right across the state, I hear it time and time again from principals, particularly when they see new graduate teachers coming into the classroom,” Wilson said.

“This has consequences, this means we’re seeing teachers exit.

”We’re open to different solutions and we’re certainly looking at that as part of our policy development process.”

Parents Victoria agrees online harassment is completely unacceptable, but it believes fining parents is not the solution. 

“[It] may act as a deterrent, a prevention, but it’s not a cure,” Parents Victoria chief executive Gail McHardy said.

Education Minister Ben Carroll says there are no plans to introduce the proposal.

“We already have a school-wide positive behaviours initiative where there are issues at the school that we need to resolve,” Carroll said.

“For really really, the most difficult situations we always also have a school community safety order system in place where authorised officers in the department of education can issue notices where parents are banned from attending a particular school.

“We are talking about a very small number of notices that get issued every year.”