Toxic parents can be banned from schools for WhatsApp posts

Parents who target teachers in WhatsApp groups or in person would be forced to pull posts and barred from schools under a new enhanced safety scheme.

Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll announced the legislation to strengthen the existing School Community Safety Scheme on Friday.

Under current laws, a principal can issue an immediate order that bars someone from school grounds when there is an “immediate” risk of harm to a person at a school, and the ban lasts for 14 days. Principals can also issue orders that last for 12 months if a person is seen to be a continued risk to the school community.

Under the proposed changes to the legislation, the government will let principals issue verbal orders to parents and caregivers to immediately leave the premises from the start of term 1 next year.

“That parent will need to follow that order and leave the premises,” Carroll said Friday.

“They will also have to take down any content they put up on a social media platform or in a parent WhatsApp group. We’re sending the most clear message to parents.”

Carroll said parents and caregivers would need to set the example for their children and support teachers in the classroom, at the school gate and online.

The government aims to lower the threshold for community safety orders to allow them to be issued for an “unacceptable threat” from the start of 2027.

“That could be a verbal threat, a physical threat, any threat online or toward the teacher when they’re entering their workplace,” the minister said.

He said in the past four years there had been a 60 per cent rise in violence towards teachers, including teachers being violently assaulted and verbally threatened on parents’ WhatsApp groups or on social media platforms like Facebook.

“We are making sure that the net is widened, that beyond the school gate, our principals deserve to feel safe while out in the community, and while they’re doing their everyday business in the community,” he said.

A recent independent statutory review and consultation with the school sector received more than 1100 anonymous responses.

One principal said: “Tighter regulations on individuals bagging out schools on social media[is] needed.”

“Community need to know that threatening behaviour will have legal implications and not just the poor principal having to do all the work,” the principal said.

Another school principal said harmful behaviours weren’t restricted to physical or verbal threats.

Examples provided included harassing school staff on personal social media pages, sending repeated requests, and making p