Parents of bullies to be fined £1000

Parents of bullies could be forced to attend parenting classes or face a £1,000 fine, Education Secretary Alan Johnson has warned.

His message came as campaigners said 20,000 children were skipping school every day to avoid being bullied.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to create a "zero tolerance" culture towards bullying in an effort to stamp out the "despicable" and "intolerable" phenomenon.

New powers under the Education Act would allow parenting orders to be imposed on mothers and fathers of bullies, with a £1,000 fine if they failed to comply, he said.

I don’t think the government has any clue about how to stop bullying. There is no need for parenting classes. Parents know how to deal with their children but they are banned from using the only tool that is likely to stop misbehaviour and that is smacking. I don’t mean beating the kid up especially if they are only 7 but giving them one smack that is hard enough that they will feel the pain but don’t suffer any long term damage. Here are my proposals:

1. Bring back smacking. If the parent refuses to smack their child and their child continues to bully other children and misbehave then they should be sent to parenting classes paid for by them.

2. Free education is not a right. It is a privilege. Parents should be made to realise that. If they fail to stop their children from continuously misbehaving in school the child should lose their right to a free education until the child signs a contract on their behaviour. If they breach that contract they will lose free education forever. There will be no appeals allowed. Only the Minister of Education will be allowed to overturn the ruling.

3. Once losing free education there will be no need for child benefit unless they are sent to a private school paid out of their own pocket. If they can’t afford one it is tough. Seeing as they lose child benefit the child will be allowed to find a job if they want.

4. Teachers will be allowed to hit unruly pupils if they fail to behave after being asked once.