Police attended SA schools more than 1000 times in 2024 despite drop from previous year
The latest figures have revealed that police are responding to a huge number of incidents at SA public schools – despite the figure actually improving.
Education
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Police responded to incidents – including fights between students – at South Australian public school campuses about five times a day during the last school year, latest data reveals.
There were 1011 incidents that required police attendance at schools around the state in 2024 – down on the 1105 recorded in the previous year.
It also revealed that police attended campuses 21 times when teachers were assaulted by students last year – down from 24 in 2023.
Education Minister Blair Boyer said while it was “positive to see less incidents that have required SA Police attendance”, he wanted to see further reductions in call-outs.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight with these complex issues, but we’re doing the hard work to see the number of incidents reduce,” he said.
“There is more to do and the new schools’ funding agreement will mean more money for schools to reduce incidents.”
Mr Boyer cited a violence roundtable in 2022, banning mobile phones in high schools and $20m in funding for prevention initiatives among measures the government had taken to reduce incidents.
In January an agreement was reached between the federal and South Australian governments that would ensure public schools across the state were fully funded over the next decade.
Students in public schools across the state are set to benefit from an extra $1.25bn over that period.
“SA Police is an important partner in helping schools manage incidents,” he said.
“Schools know they can and should seek SAPOL’s assistance when needed, which I have encouraged since becoming the minister.”
SA Primary Principals Association president Tobias O’Connor said “there’s a lot that happens outside of the school that spills into the school”.
“It’s often things that have spilt from home or at a time when they should have been in their parents’ duty of care,” he said.
Primary school principals had been telling him that on their campuses, “parents need to take more responsibility” and they need to “get these kids off the phones”.
Mr O’Connor said principals had reported “concerning” TikTok trends involving violent behaviours that students had attempted to repeat.
He advocated for “stronger community partnerships” at schools as a measure to reduce incidents.
However, “anything that’s signalling less police call-outs is showing that we’re tracking in the right direction”.
Opposition education spokeswoman Heidi Girolamo said the new figures were “nothing to celebrate”.
“Violence in our schools continues to be a serious issue,” Ms Girolamo said.
“Our students have a right to feel safe in the classroom.”
Comparable data on independent and Catholic schools is not publicly available.
It came as an Australian Catholic University survey of principals revealed the percentage of school leaders who had experienced physical violence had risen from 40.2 per cent in 2023 to 56.6 per cent in 2024.
Similarly, the proportion who had experienced threats of physical violence climbed from 42.9 per cent in 2023 to 55.9 per cent the following year.
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