14 yo Australian girl gets armpits shaved by teacher

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The life skills we were taught at the school I went to were learning how to cook, and stranger danger we even had an elective program where we were encouraged to choose our own things to do. such as Typing, swimming, care of pets, candle making, sweet making (We had a lot of fun in that one)

The Mother was on 3aw a few weeks ago about this issue I don't know if she went to the principal about it.

I somewhat agree with the teacher, maybe more consent should have been sort, but from what I read it is a school trying to integrate kids with a variety of disorders and disabilities into mainstream life and unfortunately as much as you may not like it, how a person presents themselves is very important in society and especially at school and in the workplace.

My mother (who I suspect is the genetic link to my ASD) whilst she was a very supportive mother in the the sense of food and health and opportunity took no care over how I dressed for school. If only a conscientious teacher had taken the time to help me brush my hair, persuade me to wear clothes that were not tatty and dirty, get me to shower and brush my teeth more than once a week, maybe just maybe I might have not suffered the torture and torment that I did at school, maybe I might not have descended into a haze of self medication in the form of illicit drugs.

I am sorry but in my experience those of you who do not think personal appearance should be part of Life Skills are very very mistaken.

Thanks for apologizing for having such a stupid opinion.

I bow to your greater capacity for intellectual thought, your ability to see the other persons point of view is beyond reproach. I am humbled to be in the same forum space as one so great as yourself.

On the other hand if you read my f*****g post you might actually get an insight into what it is like to be bullied and tormented due to your personal appearance and hygene, but no I doubt you bothered to understand my point of view and instead resorted to such an imbecilic response. Maybe you should take a few lessons in life skills as you seem to be lacking in some of the most basic principles.

When I see a disabled person in the street and I see they they have hairy legs or perhaps excess facial hair they're more than forgiven. I know they're only doing as much as they're able to. Shaving as a skill just seems a bit trivial compared to some other genuine living skills needed to survive.

agreed, my partner has MS and she can no longer shave her legs etc. But this is not what this is about. Her Daughter has an ASD, and we are trying to help her to fit in as best she can, She is off to Japan on a school trip and it is going to be hard enough for her to manage without the other kids judging her on how she presents herself, now you may think that it should not matter what clothes she wears and whether or not she shaves(and I would agree with you), but unfortunately it does, not to everyone and probably not to the majority but there are a very large minority of people who will openly judge and condemn how a kid looks.

So unless we know the full situation at that school we really should not condemn their actions.

Unfortunately, I was never blessed with a teacher who had taken out time to school me gently in the ways of personal hygiene as you did. Rather, I was terribly bullied for being socially and hygienically daft, till I eventually learned to bathe everyday.
I suspect both my parents of having some sort of high functioning autism (my Dad almost certainly being an Aspie), and so I never got the proper guidance at home for such matters.

^That is my point I did not have a teacher who helped, I wish I did, it may have made my life so much easier. The penny took a very long time to drop.

So, you're going to blame yourself for being bullied and tormented by others over superficial appearances?

Hence, a stupid opinion.

Rather, people shouldn't have to worry about being bullied and tormented for anything that doesn't harm others (one shouldn't be bullied or tormented then either, rather punished). But then people say, well, the world doesn't work like that. But then I say, make it work like that, as that's the only way it'll change.

Okay, misunderstood yuh.

Oh what a great idea, speak the word and it shall be fixed . You remind me of some of the people I heard the other day on the radio getting really het up because women were being advised to take protective measures when alone, Ie don't walk down dark alleys alone, don't walk home alone drunk etc. Their response was the same as yours "we have a right to walk wherever and whenever we want, we are not breaking the law the rapists are" "the media needs to change the behaviour of the rapists not ours"

Same utopian nonsense as yours. Yes technically they are correct but that is not going to prevent them being attack by some f**kwit that does not care about the rules, same goes for bullying, the best plan is to take steps to avoid being a target, this does not mean you accept their behaviour it just means you avoid it.

Yes lets just ignore the kids who are being tormented and bullied lets tell the people who are doing this to stop, but how do you stop it, unless bullying is very overt it is hard to spot and challenge. People like you vomit forth stupid comments like"don't accept it just stop it" and yet do not come up with a rational method to actually achieve your simplistic slogan.

Whilst you berate people who are actually trying to divert and prevent bullying with your simple minded slogans kids are committing suicide, and nothing you have said so far tells me you have the slightest inkling of the complex issues involved

Oh and by the way where did I ever "blame myself for being bullied" I implied that due to the way kids work my appearance was a source of derision and bullying and if only I'd had some better guidance I could have avoided the worst of it. That is not the same as blaming myself. Before you abuse people for there views I would suggest you question them further regarding what it is they actually think

I agree with you Good hygiene is very important, I remember years ago there was this guy in a course I was doing who smelt and had holes in his clothes no one wanted to sit anywhere near him.
A manager at the supermarket we went to told him he would NEVER employ him as he stank.

You're blaming your appearance, which is you, in addition to blaming others for not providing proper counseling to you, for the acts of bullies. You shouldn't have needed to change your appearance, nor should you have needed help with the same, as such doesn't warrant bullying.

Hence, you aren't blaming the actual bullies themselves with your words. They're are the ones at fault, not your lack of hygiene or whatever.

You're also by extension, blaming everyone that's bullied for their looks and lack of hygiene for the same reasons, as if they improved such, they'd avoid most of it, right?

The one thing I learnt is that you can be bullied for anything. You can be bullied for being too good. Making yourself worst if you're too good won't stop bullying, rather it'll just change the bullying to something else.

And the fix for bullying is to respond in kind to the bullies. That's the only thing I found to work.

^ NOt sure if Enlgish is your first laguage your use of grammar and spelling etc suggests it is, however your level of comprehension suggests you have little idea what people are saying.

For the last time I DO NOT BLAME MYSELF, if you believe that taking steps to avoid being a target is blaming oneself go ahead and believe that, however do not tell me what I know about myself. You continue attacking me for a desire not to be a target and repeating the mantra WE just have to stop bullying, and still you advance no rational steps to achieve this.

Unsurprising really, as you do not seem to recognize attempted bullying when you carry it out yourself.

As you are now aware I do not take such comments lying down

Ok, so you're not blaming your personal appearance and hygiene for the bullying (or for anyone's), though you think that improving such to proactively stop bullying before it starts is prudent.

You can't really conclude much from that other than saying you need to go out of your way to stop people from bullying you [or anyone] for specific reasons (when in reality, you shouldn't need to as the bully is always in the wrong). Ok. "Blend in". One problem with this is that you can be bullied for millions of things, and if you're a target of such, it'll be for any reason someone can find. Not to mention you're pandering to bullies by trying to change how you are to suit them.

Not to mention again that we might be talking about disabled individuals who find self-care hard.

As I alluded to, confronting bullies if one is capable of doing such (i.e., you can talk) is the only way it'll work other than leaving the place you're being bullied, as teachers are often unreliable at best in stopping it.

I don't see that anyone should pander to bullies. Pandering is akin to blaming yourself as far as I go -- the bully is ultimately right, so you must change yourself based on their bullying.

And calling an opinion stupid isn't bullying. It's just calling an opinion stupid. Pandering is stupid, for selling yourself out, and it doesn't really help in the end, as the bullies will still bully you if you're the target*.

*There's actually complicated social dynamics at play here; sometimes groups can pick on an individual incessantly no matter what, sometimes they can pick on someone for a specific reason, and variants of the same

Totally disingenuous;;
calling an opinion stupid may not be bullying given the particular context but the manner in which you used it most certainly is. Sadly you cannot see this,


You are conflating avoidance with acceptance. This is poor logic

You continue to call avoidance pandering, so is finding different ways home from school to avoid a beating, pandering. Maybe people who are in this position should walk straight up to the crowd and get their heads kicked in.

At no point in this discussion have I ever suggested that when identified bullies should not be dealt with, if you read my posts you will see that i pointed out when this type of behavior is not overt it is very hard for people in a position of power to deal with it.

The trouble is you appear to be living in a Utopian head-space where everyone can be nice to each other and we can all be ourselves without anyone else passing judgement.

The trouble is no matter how much I or you might wish this to be the case the world and society is simply not like this. You are a case in point, here you are espousing that everyone should be themselves and yet you judge me for how I decide to get through life.