Invercargill National Party MP, Eric Roy has begun his campaign with a spot of bullying, according to The Southland Times. The headline,
"MP accused of bullying tactics"
leads into this story that describes Mr Roy's attack on ... my son, Terry!
"Political sparks flew over national standards at a candidates' debate last night, with Invercargill MP Eric Roy accused of adopting bullying tactics.
During an election candidates' function organised by the Invercargill branch of the National Council of Women, education became the main flashpoint for debate.
Fernworth School teacher Terry Guyton asked candidates what they would do to "repair the damage caused by national standards".
Mr Guyton said the standards were forcing teachers to label five-year-olds as failures.
Mr Roy took exception to Mr Guyton's comment"
Not a good look, Mr Roy, bullying a popular and quite frankly, wonderful young man like Terry!
The article continues:
"If you are a teacher telling five-year-olds they are a failure you should not be teaching," he said. "You should not even be testing them." Mr Roy said the standards were designed to ensure the one in four pupils currently not reaching an acceptable standard would be more able to.
There were more than 2000 primary schools in New Zealand and of those only 92 were refusing to introduce them, he said.
Many previously sceptical schools were beginning to see their benefit.
He accepted some criticism about the way National had legislated the standards, but said if teachers had ideas about how to make them better they should come to him.
Labour candidate Lesley Soper took the platform after Mr Roy and promptly accused him of bullying.
"You have just seen an example of the bullying ... the Ministry of Education has used on teachers in this country."
Under Labour the standards would not be forced onto schools, she said.
Green candidate David Kennedy, also a teacher and vocal critic of the Government over national standards, said in principle they were a good idea, but not to be used as an assessment tool."
Telling Mr Guyton, teacher at Fernworth Primary School that he shouldn't be teaching is a foolish thing to do, given Terry's wide popularity amongst students, their parents and the staff of Fernworth, as well as teachers in the wider community, and I'm certain Mr Roy has damaged his 'good bloke' image by doing so. I hope that some of those who know Terry and the fabulous things he has done for the children at Fernworth, will make their thoughts known to Mr Roy, perhaps through the local newspaper that carried the story of bullying at the first of the candidate meetings. I know I'll be at the second :-)
