About a week ago now, 60 year old Michael Bell rocked up to Nightcliff Middle School in the Northern Territory (NT) to begin work as a relief teacher.
Days later Bell found himself at the Royal Darwin Hospital after being stabbed in the arm and leg.
Bell was stabbed by a student. The student had gone for his stomach but could only get a hold of Bell’s arm and leg. Moments earlier the student had also kinghit Bell in the face.
The stabbing occured after ‘heated words’ were exchanged between Bell and the student. Obviously not happy with what was said, the student ‘went back to his desk and pulled the knife‘.
What a knife was doing in the student’s desk is anyone’s guess but thus far officials have been tight lipped about it.
Nightcliff Middle School principal Sarah May refused to talk about the incident and Northern Territory Education Minister Chris Burns ‘would not give details about the 14-year-old’s mental and physical health, nor about his past behaviour or personal background‘ when questioned.
Burns wasn’t entirely tight lipped about the incident however. Playing the assault down, he labelled it an ‘isolated incident‘ and laid out a government backed guarantee that public schools in the Northern Territory were safe.
So what changed in the 24 hours after the stabbing to prompt such a response from the government?
Absolutely nothing.
The guarantee from the NT government that staff and students in their public schools are safe appears to be backed up by nothing more than the Education Minister’s own words.
Violence in our schools is completely unacceptable, even the possession of a knife is not on in our schools.
We will ensure the safety of our students and staff.
But it’s already happened, and there’s absolutely nothing in place to stop it happening again.
As far as deterrent goes, the student was immediately suspended while the police are investigating.
From the sounds of it though, no further police action appears to be imminent. Instead, ‘the chief executive of the education department will decide whether the student will be removed from mainstream schooling and placed in an alternative learning centre‘.
Alternative learning centre? Don’t you mean jail?
This is a kid who has previously ”smashed windows and thrown chairs around the room before‘ and ‘received support for behavioural problems in the past‘.
Yeah, because clearly that support has been adequate and effective.
Despite the stabbing however, NT Education Minister Chris Burns insists that ‘trouble makers were dealt with appropriately‘.
Dunno about you, but if I was in the NT public school system I’d be feeling anything but safe, especially when NT education union boss Matthew Crannitch is claiming there’s been ‘an increase in behavioural problems across Northern Territory schools‘.
Feeling secure yet?
In the NT at least, stabbing a teacher results in no criminal charges and the education department deciding whether or not you need to be put into a special school or not. Y’know, because it’s not like it’s a no-brainer or anything.
But what about other states?
Over in NSW the now famous ‘Zangief kid’ incident between Casey Heynes and Ritchard Gale made headlines over the past week.
In a nutshell, skinny younger kid Gale was taunting and punching fat overweight Heynes in the head. With his back against a wall Heynes lost it, picked up the lightweight Gale and bodyslammed him into concrete.
The video footage was captured by Gale’s mates and uploaded to Youtube where it went viral.
Subsequently both boys were removed from school and then two local rival tv networks picked up both their stories for a reported $40,000 each.
Forget ‘appropriate channels‘ and suitably disciplinary action, over in Sydney we reward school yard violence with cold hard cash.
Is it any wonder violence in Australian schools feels like it’s been on the rise for years now?
So what exactly are the government going to do about this problem? Obviously counselling and trying to be best mates with bullies and disruptive students is failing miserable, so what alternatives are the Australian government going to come up with?
…
…hello?
Oh that’s right, you’re not going to hear any new ideas or strategies announced because the government already has its hands full policing toddlers drawing rainbows on our footpaths.
- Council tells cafe to stop giving kids chalk
- Drawings included rainbows and stick figures
- Children cried when chalk taken away
Really guys?
Take away toddler’s chalk and make them cry, put them through years of school letting them run wild with little no disciplinary action (but make sure you offer them loads of counselling so they can talk about their feelings), meanwhile completely ignore the problem by offering up paper thin guarantees and at the end of the day… where does that get us?
Four boys, aged just 11,12,13 and 14 years-old, have been charged with a string of sex offences against women over a two-day period this month.
They include an alleged attack on a woman at the Murdoch train station, an attack on a 16-year-old girl at a fast food store in Bull Creek; an attack on a 42-year-old woman at a store at the Bull Creek Shopping Centre; an attack on a 16-year-old girl at the bus port at the Cockburn train station and an attack on a 67-year-old woman on Hefron Street in Rockingham.
The public school system in this country is stuffed. Give it another decade and I’m almost certain Australia is going to be staring down the barrel of our very own Columbine.
But yeah, so long as the government keeps policing our footpaths, we’ve got absolutely nothing to worry about – our guarantee even says so!