Tony spent his early years in Christchurch – and has very fond memories of his teacher reading Rudyard Kipling Jungle Stories. However memories of his secondary school years in the mid 60s are mixed. It was during these years that he was first exposed to the pack mentality of bullying.  He also experienced the tough discipline of a bully gym teacher who believed it was OK to use the cane as an inducement to reach the required gymnastics targets. Fortunately Tony was good at other sports including captaining the boxing team and outplaying his Principal in squash. The latter experience clearly didn’t leave him with a great deal of respect for said Principal.

 

His secondary schooling experience was also influenced by 3 excellent teachers, who were very kind to him and supported his sporting and musical strengths. So much so, Tony went to University and became a teacher – starting his career in Auckland. There, his Headmaster asked him to work on improving what had become a very bad culture in one of the boarding houses. He started by cleaning out the physical evidence of the bullying and laying the ground rules on new ways of doing things – without violence.

 

After being a Headmaster in Hawkes Bay, Tony set up a consultancy and undertook statutory intervention work for the Ministry of Education. That led to the toughest year of his life, 2003. For a year he looked after Te Aute College, a College that has some very influential alumni and also a very dark history of bullying as referred to in the ex-All Black Norm Hewitt’s book. Norm’s reference to his survival tactic at Te Aute was to become the bully of the bullies! As the interventionist change agent, Tony’s role was to set up an action plan and facilitate the plan until the school got back on its feet. By the end of the year, he had addressed almost two thirds of the item list and after setting up a task force, left them to continue his work under new leadership.

 

Statistics show very little has changed over the years vis a vis bullying in schools. Tony’s experience as a pupil, teacher and consultant confirms that no school is immune to bullying, and student behaviour can be challenging and incomprehensible to even the most experienced leaders. He would argue that schools need to be more supported and be better resourced to counter the behaviours that result in bullying.

 

So after his 30 years in education, what does Tony believe in above all else?

That bullies are made not born; we are a product of our own environment; the family unit is the basis of everything – if you come from a strong family with quality role models particularly for boys, experience love and connectedness, openness and honesty then that is the best foundation we can provide.

 

A recurring theme in his talk was leadership and the impact of both strong and weak leadership. Tony has great faith in our youth and leaders of tomorrow.  He has kept contact with many of his former pupils and in his role as a Celebrant has had the privilege of marrying a number of his former pupils. Very fitting indeed.

 

Brenda Lazelle