Teachers punched, students stabbed and classrooms set on fire: Inside the violent incidents that have left schools on edge

  • The dark period for New South Wales public schools is detailed in a new report
  • The worst areas in the state continued to be in west Sydney suburbs like Casula
  • One of the worrying incidents reported was two students setting a school on fire
  • The figures follow a rise in reported student-on-teacher violence in Queensland 

By CHARLIE COË FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: | Updated:

A classroom was lit on fire, a teacher punched in the back and a student stabbed as schoolyard violence surged in one Australian state this year.

The dark period for public schools in New South Wales, detailed in a report issued by the Department of Education, comes as a high school in Kelso, NSW was put into lockdown on Friday following an incident involving parents and students.

The government summary brought together reports by school principals to the department and showed a rise of two-thirds in violence at public schools.

A classroom was lit on fire, a teacher punched in the back and a student stabbed as schoolyard violence has surged in one Australian state (stock image)

A classroom was lit on fire, a teacher punched in the back and a student stabbed as schoolyard violence has surged in one Australian state (stock image)

The findings in NSW come after figures showed a rise in the number of attacks on teachers by students in Queensland between July 2017 and July 2018. 

One of the most shocking incidents filed was when a Wagga Wagga student was stabbed after allegedly 'accidentally pushing' the perpetrator in July 2017. 

Other troubling incidents, seen by The Daily Telegraph, included a teacher persuading an eight-year-old to stop holding a knife to the throat of one of his contemporaries. 

A teacher also was punched in the back and taken to hospital after an attack in the Liverpool area in August of last year.

More brazen behaviour last year included two Wagga Wagga students lighting a fire before one of them roamed around on-site with a knife. 

Western Sydney schools continued to face the worst of the violence, four years after it emerged the number of serious incidents at institutions in the area had almost doubled from the year before.

Casula, Glenfield and Macquarie Fields were three of the suburbs laying claim to some of the state's most violent schools. 

A dark period for public schools in New South Wales, detailed in a report issued by the Department of Education, comes as a high school in Kelso, NSW was put into lockdown on Friday following an incident involving parents and students (believed to be pictured) 

A dark period for public schools in New South Wales, detailed in a report issued by the Department of Education, comes as a high school in Kelso, NSW was put into lockdown on Friday following an incident involving parents and students (believed to be pictured) 

The Department of Education tells teachers they do not have to intervene if they see students being violent to each other, but an industry head said in reality it never worked out like that.

NSW Secondary Principals' Council Chris Presland told The Daily Telegraph: 'Every principal says the same thing to teacher, which is 'we don't expect you to endanger yourself physically'.

'But of course they get hurt because they won't stand back and watch someone get hurt.'

Mr Presland credited the rise shown in new figures to teachers reporting more minor violence, while the DoE said there was an incident report for just one in every 695 students in NSW.

 

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