Wednesday, 8 February 2023

Adjournment

South-West Coast electorate schools

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (19:10): (21) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to advise what steps she is taking to prevent violence in South-West Coast schools and what support is being provided to teachers to achieve this. I have been contacted by concerned parents of secondary school students enrolled at Victorian government secondary schools in South-West Coast expressing their alarm at the inability of the Victorian education system to protect their children from physical violence from their fellow students. There are children in South-West Coast secondary schools who have personal safety intervention orders, also known as IVOs, due to instances of physical violence perpetrated on them during school hours on school premises by fellow students.

One student was targeted by a group of older students who physically assaulted them by pushing them to the ground and striking them repeatedly. This was captured on CCTV, and the matter is now in the hands of the police. This same student was then actively pursued by the same group of older students during class changeover and repeatedly assaulted. Another student was not only repeatedly physically assaulted at school but also harassed and tormented on social media and out in the community. It is not an option for these children to simply change schools, because in regional Victoria educational opportunities are limited. Some of these children have been forced to enrol in virtual schooling because their schools do not have the resources to ensure their safety. These children have been forced to abandon educational opportunities, the chance for peer relationships and the ability to broaden their horizons due to the under-resourced and overwhelmed school system.

Our teachers are amazing people who do remarkable things to educate, inspire and support our young people, but they need support. Experienced and capable educators have been abandoned by this government and have now been left to their own devices to navigate a world where personal safety intervention orders must be considered in the playground and on sports days. Intervention orders in the playground – you cannot make this stuff up. Parents feel helpless because they are unable to keep their children safe when they are at school, but isn’t it the government’s job to keep Victorian children safe at Victorian government schools? This government is not doing it. This government is failing Victorian children. Our young people need to be able to learn and thrive in a safe and supportive school environment, not be hospitalised from a brutal assault on the way to the library. Minister, our schools are not safe. Our teachers and principals have been let down by the Andrews Labor government.