‘Confronting’ security presence joins students of a northeastern school rocked by controversy

Parents and students say they are still concerned despite extreme new safety measures at Golden Grove High where ‘deplorable’ school fight videos emerged last term.

Golden Grove High School parents still fear for the safety of their children after a series of confronting school fight videos emerged from the northeastern campus late last term.

South Australian students returned to school on Monday to commence term four and Golden Grove parents, including one mother who has chosen not to be named, have said they are still terrified by the deplorable violence at the school despite new safety measures.

“I am absolutely worried about my son going into school each day,” she said.

“If they‘re going to have fighting in the school you don’t want your children involved or seeing that kind of behaviour.”

Security guards have been brought in to help stop the fights on campus, but the parent said it remains to be seen if they will have an impact.

“We will just have to wait and see if that has taken it far enough,” she said.

Golden Grove High School students Brock and Isabelle St Clair with their father Steven at school pick-up on Monday. Picture: Brenton Edwards

The heightened security presence was felt by Golden Grove students Brock St Clair, 16, and Isabelle St Clair, 14, who said it was “confronting” having security throughout the hallways.

“We were able to see quite a lot of security guards walking around, which was pretty scary,” Brock said.

The shocking fight videos were recorded by students of Golden Grove High School between September 10 and 26, despite an Education Department ban on phones during school hours.

One of the videos included a sickening attack on a young boy in the toilets, where a group of students encouraged a bigger boy to carry out the assault.

“Hit him! Go again,” the onlooking group shouted in the video.

Isabelle said she had not been directly impacted by the violence at the school, however, she is worried for the safety of her friends.

“My brother and I are not in the groups who have been involved in the fights, so I’m not overly worried for my safety,” she said.

“But I do have a few friends who are in those groups so I am scared about what could happen to them.”

Brock said the school had told students that bystanders would continue to receive similar punishments to perpetrators if future incidents were to occur.

“It’s not exactly clear how you are meant to not be a bystander,” he said.

“It seems to be a combination of either getting a teacher or trying to stop what is going on.

“The main thing they want is for people to not film the fight.”

Education Department chief executive Martin Westwell said the school had taken “strong action” including suspending 20 students

“Violence at any school is completely unacceptable. Golden Grove High School has taken strong action to deal with this behaviour, including suspending 20 students at the end of term three,” he said.

In addition to security guards, Education Minister Blair Boyer has brought in former principal Peter McLaren, behaviour specialists and a parent liaison.

Principal Peter Kuss has written to parents at the school advising them of these details and urging them to raise any issues of concern with the school’s leadership team directly so it can be addressed immediately.

“I am confident this additional resourcing, along with action already taken by the GGHS leadership to deal with this behaviour, will result in the change that is needed to tackle any unacceptable behaviour at the school,” he said.

“We know that these are isolated incidents and the majority of students are focused on their learning at this school.”