Bullying appears to be far more widespread in Australian schools than official reports capture, with research finding that 24% of students aged 11 to 17 report being bullied monthly and 10% experiencing it weekly. Fewer than one in three students who experience bullying tell an adult, meaning a large proportion of incidents may never be formally recorded.
The issue has now come into focus in the case of Bobby Backman, 39, who has been handed a community-based sentence after admitting he assaulted a 16-year-old student at Pakenham Secondary College before confronting and assaulting the father of another student less than an hour later.
Backman pleaded guilty to two counts of common law assault, aggravated burglary and entering a public place without authorisation or excuse over a series of events on March 11th.
The court heard Backman’s son had arrived home distressed and told his father he had once again been targeted by boys at his school.
According to a psychological report referred to during the proceedings, the teenager told his father he had been threatened with and forced to kneel at the feet of the boys who were bullying him inside a school toilet block.
It was not the first warning sign. Backman and his former partner had previously raised concerns about the bullying with the school, but their son continued to be targeted, the Herald Sun reported.
At about 11:15am, Backman arrived at Pakenham Secondary College and approached a group of students on the basketball courts.
He punched a 16-year-old boy in the face before demanding to know where another alleged bully could be found.
Teachers intervened, with prosecutor James Sutherland telling the court that several staff members worked to de-escalate the situation and move Backman elsewhere on the school grounds.
Backman left the school with his son at about 11:27am.
He did not go home.
Within half an hour, Backman had arrived at the front door of the other student’s father. He knocked and yelled before entering through a door that had been left unlocked.
Backman then struck the man in the face, leaving him unconscious.
His barrister, Lauren Bull, told the court that Backman had been dealing with mental health issues at the time, which she said combined with the ongoing bullying to create a “perfect storm.”
Reading from a psychological report, Bull said Backman experienced severe distress, helplessness and horror when his son told him the boys had targeted him again.
She said this reaction appeared to have precipitated the onset of an angry outburst.
Bull also told the court that Backman had no prior history and had complied fully with his bail conditions.
Backman pleaded guilty to all charges and accepted responsibility for his actions.
Judge Kevin Doyle acknowledged the circumstances surrounding Backman’s actions but made clear they did not provide a justification.
“It’s not excuse, but it does provide an explanation for why you acted the way that you did,”
Doyle told Backman.
The judge nevertheless described the assaults as serious, noting that Backman was an adult who had gone into a school and assaulted a student.
Doyle said the circumstances would normally call for a term of imprisonment, but after considering Backman’s clean record, the circumstances surrounding the incident and his compliance since being charged, he imposed a Community Corrections Order instead.
Backman was sentenced to 18 months on the order and required to complete 220 hours of unpaid community work.
Doyle told Backman he did not expect to see him before the courts again.
“It’s unlikely that the courts will see you again,”
Research in this area has produced mixed results. While some studies have reported that martial arts training can reduce aggression among young people, others have found an increase or no measurable effect.
A randomized controlled trial involving 283 Australian secondary students aged 12 to 14 tested a 10-week taekwondo-based program and found that the results did not fit neatly into the idea that martial arts training reliably reduces aggressive behaviour.
The researchers concluded that their findings pointed toward a more nuanced picture in which martial arts training may have only a limited effect on aggressive behaviour.
That finding contrasts with a 2017 meta-analysis by Harwood, Lavidor and Rassovsky, which concluded that martial arts training decreases aggression among young people. The later research also raised methodological questions about earlier studies, including the selection of larger effect sizes when individual studies reported multiple results.
The researchers ultimately urged caution rather than certainty, concluding that the evidence did not support martial arts as an effective method for regulating aggression but was also insufficient to recommend against its use altogether.
For Backman, the court ultimately drew a similar distinction between understanding the circumstances behind an outburst and excusing the actions that followed. His son’s reported experiences with bullying formed an important part of the context presented to the court, but Judge Doyle made clear that context could not erase responsibility for what happened next.
