St Columba College students filmed brawling as parents say fight videos are rife

Video of schoolgirls violently brawling and ripping each other’s hair as onlookers cheer is just the latest incident at a northern suburbs school, parents say.

Shocking new footage has emerged of an incident involving students at a northern suburbs joint Catholic and Anglican school, with parents saying fight videos are passed around almost weekly.

Two female St Columba College year 8 students were involved in an after school brawl on Stebonheath Oval, in Andrews Farm, on Wednesday.

Video shows the teenage girls punching, kicking and ripping each other’s hair as others cheer them on.

One single mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said her three children regularly witnessed brawls on school campus and videos of the brutal incidents were shared among students.

“My kids have received videos and watched videos of other fights,” she said.

“It’s really shocking, it makes you wonder what’s being done at lunchtime to stop this.”

St Columba College deputy principal Darren Pitt said senior staff had investigated the incident using witness statements and CCTV footage and had taken “appropriate disciplinary action”.

Video of an Andrews Farm brawl is the latest in a series of violent incidents across Adelaide.

“We have made it clear to those involved that this behaviour is unacceptable,” Mr Pitt said.

The behaviour of these students is not condoned by the College and not in keeping with our values.”

The video is the latest to emerge in a series of shocking schoolyard incidents across the state.

Earlier this week, the Department of Education said that security guards deployed to a Whyalla school, after a vicious attack which left a 15-year-old girl in hospital, would remain until early next term.

Two young girls were allegedly assaulted in separate attacks by a group of Paralowie R-12 School students last week, while an Aberfoyle Park grandmother said bullying at a southern suburbs school drove her grandson to the edge.

St Columba has not been without its past controversies, with one teacher sacked in 2014, after taping a reception student to a chair and another in 2018, after offering to be a 16-year-old student’s “sugar daddy”.

But last month, the Catholic college held a hero’s welcome for one of its most inspirational alumni.

Socceroo Awer Mabil, 26, visited his old school after scoring a decisive penalty in the team’s World Cup playoff against Peru.

Mabil said he wanted to show the kids at St Columba that, no matter where they started from, they could make it to the top.

“I want to be an example to the next generation because, you know, the former generation of the Socceroos was a big impact on my life growing up so I hope I can do the same for these kids,’’ Mabil said.

Deputy principal Darren Pitt said Mabil’s achievements gave proof to the message the school preached to its students that there was a “pathway to success’’.