Latest news with #ToddMurphy
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Lacie, 15, was excited about starting a new school. Three weeks later she was dead. This is her heartbroken dad's message to all parents
The grieving father of a 15-year-old girl who took her own life has spoken out, claiming the school she attended for three weeks before she passed away failed to protect her from bullying. Lacie May Murphy died on March 18 after a struggle with mental illness and bullying at her new school on the Gold Coast after moving from New South Wales in search of a fresh start. Her father, Todd Murphy, 39, said that the school dismissed Lacie's pleas for help and made her feel as though her concerns were 'not important'. Originally from Muswellbrook, Lacie had recently moved to the Gold Coast to live with her father. At first, things seemed to be going well - she even texted her dad to say she loved the school. But by the end of her first week, things changed. Lacie began questioning her dad about the way she was being treated by other students. 'Why are they bullying me - why are they saying this?' she asked him at the time. Lacie reported the bullying to the school, but Mr Murphy said she felt ignored. Mr Murphy said staff asked Lacie whether she wished to change schools but she decided to fight on. 'To Lacie's credit, she came back to me after a week and said, "Dad, I want to... battle through and and finish Year 10 at least. And that was her decision. 'And I said, "That's good, that's what I want." I said," I'll look after the bullying. I'll do what I can. I just ask you go to school and try your hardest".' Mr Murphy also hoped Lacie, who identified as Aboriginal, would connect with the school's First Nations liaison officer - but he said it took weeks for anyone to reach out. Tragically, the phone call finally came on March 18 - the same day he came home to find Lacie had died. 'The liason officer was three weeks too late,' her dad said. 'It is the worst possible fear that any parent could have - that you have to bury your child like that.' Lacie had a history of mental health struggles, including ADHD. Her father said the school made an effort to assist her including by giving her a card she could flash to leave the class when she felt 'overwhelmed or anxious'. But Mr Murphy believes the school should have done more to protect his his daughter in the three weeks she spent there before she died. Now, he's urging schools to take bullying more seriously and for parents to better understand warning signs in their children. 'We did know Lacie was struggling, but ultimately, Lacie didn't have the tools in her toolbox to be able to explain well enough to us what she needed, or all the feelings she had,' Mr Murphy told Daily Mail Australia. 'And, you know, [she] bottled them up, and put on a brave face and a smile and didn't want to confront her own demons that she had. 'This mental health stigma and this bullying... it needs to stop. We need to do something.' Lacie has been remembered as a kind and loving soul with a passion for rugby league. 'She was the epitome of selflessness - she cared about others far more than she cared about herself,' Mr Murphy said. 'In the football team it's the same... she would run the ball to get as far as she could for her teammates, she would always stand up for them and always stand up for her friends but she carried so much of that weight herself. 'You know, she cared too much, she loved too much, she didn't know how to let go... she thought she had to do it all and carry it all.' A spokesperson for the Queensland Department of Education admitted it had do more to ensure safe and inclusive environments were created for all students. 'Our thoughts and sincere sympathies are with the student's family, friends and loved ones during this devastating time. It is a tragedy when a young person's life is cut short,' the spokesperson said. The Queensland Government recently announced a $33million investment to help tackle bullying in schools. The new program includes the establishment of 'Rapid Support Squads' designed to fly into schools in need of extra support, funding for wellbeing staff and the expansion of a hotline to provide guidance to carers. 'The Anti-bullying Stakeholder Reference Group, consisting of experts in the field will inform the department's anti-bullying actions and measures and guide future initiatives to prevent and respond to bullying,' they said. 'Furthermore, all students have access to wellbeing professionals at school, and access to a team of experts providing specialist assistance in student protection, mental health and wellbeing.'
The Guardian
05-02-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Australia are in pursuit of perfection as Sri Lanka seek to learn from their mistakes
What to do after an exercise in perfection? Australia's men ran last week's Test match in Galle as brutally as their counterpart women did in Melbourne, both teams completing a win by an innings and plenty within 90 seconds of one another last Saturday. The ticked boxes for the men's side can fill a page: rack up more than 600 batting first; blazing fifty for your pinch-hit opener who was picked to blaze fifties; huge hundred for your other opener who had been a long time without one; third hundred in four Tests for your resurgent talisman, the same guy who is temporary captain and pulls the reins as well as ever; ton on debut for your No 5 who was a conditions pick ahead of others already capped; comfortable not out for your keeper who might otherwise be threatened by the debutant; bowl the opposition out twice following on in barely 100 overs across the two innings; wickets for your sole quick in a ram-raid at the top; wickets for your veteran spinner conducting the middle; and nine in the match for your left-arm spinner who almost missed with a broken thumb. The only performance of concern might be third spinner Todd Murphy, who was hardly required in a wicketless first innings, picked up a solitary pole in the second via a straight ball and a bad leave, and got tapped around at five an over across the match. But such can be the luck of the draw in a triple-spin attack, where one bowler might be targeted out of desperation when the others do well, and those roles can change from one match to the next. Australia will doubtless go in unchanged for the second and final Test that starts on Thursday. A better showing for Murphy, bigger scores for Marnus Labuschagne and Beau Webster, and they'll be replete, having already retained the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy as the current holders. It won't have any effect on the World Test Championship standings, but it will underline Australia as worthy finalists, at the same time as England and India's most senior administrators make plans to shred the current structure and start over having not qualified. Still, a dominant performance in one Test doesn't guarantee the same in the next. Australia had the luck of the coin on a pitch that was flat for two days and then took more and more turn, as some Galle tracks can do. Steve Smith's delight at choosing to bat was evident, doubly so given that 70% of his career hundreds have come batting first. He soon enough raised that mark to 71.5%. But Smith was dropped on one, having moved from 9,999 career runs to 10,000. Usman Khawaja was dropped too, and both veteran opener and Travis Head were given reprieves when Sri Lanka didn't review wrong decisions. Take those wickets early and Australia could have been a few down for not many, with a different sort of match unfolding. Sri Lanka will never know what might have happened, but they were not initially a team without a chance. They will need a drastic turnaround in attitude and application, however, and that starts from the captain down. Dhananjaya da Silva has often been a dynamic cricketing presence, so it was all the more mystifying that as Australia's score ballooned, he kept turning to the same four bowlers again and again. And even among that quartet, his specialist seamer Asitha Fernando only bowled 15 overs. His three spinners bowled 139 of them, and in a side with three credible part-time options, including one who can bowl with both arms, da Silva called on none of them. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion It was by a mile the most runs conceded by a four-man attack, and it remains inexplicable, more so than the harried and hurried shot selection that caused Sri Lanka's batting downfall. Those at least were in the heat of the moment, while the bowling madness was persisted with across two days with a night's sleep to think it over. Questions about that don't just rest with the captain, but with the coaches who obviously didn't intervene. So the second Test depends on Sri Lanka showing up this time, and it also depends on what the ground staff deliver. At a guess that is more likely to be a pitch that spins from day one, given the new track already looked ready to play on four days out from the start. It's not that Sri Lanka showed any aptitude against Australia's spin, but at least a severely turning track would level out any advantage from the toss. Australia have prepared for those conditions too, and with the run-fest banked, it would be much more entertaining and instructive to see how they combat difficulty.
