Bullied student gets paid damages

A Sydney Catholic school will have to pay damages to a former student after the Supreme Court found it had failed to address continuing bullying which targeted the girl. Jazmine Oyston sued her old school, St Patrick's College, for negligence, claiming she suffered psychiatric injury after being taunted and abused by other students.

It began in 2002 when she was in year 7 and continued until 2005, when her parents withdrew her from the all-girls' Catholic college.

Justice Monika Schmidt yesterday found the school had breached its duty of care to Ms Oyston and responded ineffectively to ''persistent inappropriate behaviour and bullying … even though it was apparent that real harm was resulting''.

The school was aware she was the target of ongoing bullying, the judge said, but ''failed to take steps necessary to bring that bullying to an end'' in accordance with its own policies.

The evidence suggested an overemphasis on supporting students who misbehaved ''at the cost of not ensuring that Ms Oyston, the victim of that behaviour, was not injured as a result of being bullied''. She sought almost $540,000 in damages but the court has yet to determine the amount to be awarded. To read the rest of the article click here.

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