By Alex Crowe, Nicole Precel, Broede Carmody and Ashleigh McMillan
A spate of attacks on teenagers – including armed robberies and an abduction – has put schools across Melbourne’s inner east on alert and left parents worried about their children’s safety.
Police on horseback and vehicles patrolled Glen Huntly on Wednesday, days after a 14-year-old Glen Eira College student was forced into a car while walking home from school. He was ejected from the moving vehicle shortly after.
Police patrol Glen Eira Secondary School on Wednesday.Credit: Joe Armao
Other schools across the city’s east have also detailed recent incidents of intimidation and robbery and are urging students to avoid walking home alone and be vigilant when commuting.
Xavier College in Kew said a group of students had been accosted near Glenferrie Oval in Hawthorn on Friday, while Elwood College, just west of Glen Huntly, said a woman had recently tried to rob a student of her phone.
Last month, private schools Sacre Coeur and Scotch College warned that students had been attacked and robbed at Chadstone shopping centre in Malvern East and held at knifepoint on Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn.
Parents told The Age on Wednesday that they had changed their routines after the Glen Eira abduction on Monday, driving their children to school or walking with them.
Victoria Police Inspector Scott Dwyer said police were investigating if there was a crime trend targeting students in the area.
“Across Bayside, Glen Eira and City of Kingston, we’ve increased patrols around all our high schools, just to make sure that those parents can feel safe that their children are walking to and from school,” he said.
Parents Victoria chief executive Gail McHardy said parents and carers must find a balance between encouraging their children to be independent and keeping them safe.
“We can’t cave to fear, but we can all have a more heightened awareness about putting ourselves in vulnerable situations,” McHardy said.
Dwyer said the threats and abduction that had been reported by Glen Eira students were “sickening”.
“The poor boy was just walking home with a friend after finishing school, and it would appear that it’s just a random attack by a group of offenders,” he told ABC radio.
Minutes before Monday’s abduction, four teenagers were robbed at knifepoint at nearby Kambrook Road. Police are investigating whether the incidents are linked.
After the abduction – which left the boy with “life-altering” injuries and “severe mental trauma” – at least two more teenage boys from Glen Eira College filed police reports about being attacked or robbed.
“The concerning part for me is that there’s been some silent victims,” Dwyer said. “They’ve suffered like this other boy, maybe not to the level of injuries that he has, but have not reported to their parents or to police.”
Shriyans Katariya, whose 12-year-old son attends Glen Eira College, said they were both “pretty scared” following the attacks.
He wouldn’t normally pick his son up from school, but had chosen to following the incident.
Shriyans Katariya, whose 12-year-old son attends Glen Eira College, on Wednesday afternoon.Credit: Joe Armao
“It’s a bit shocking. This area is meant to be safe. I’ve been here for three years,” he said. “I never thought anything like this would happen.”
Katariya said it would take some time before he felt comfortable letting his son travel to school alone again.
Peter Wilslow, father of 18-year-old Glen Eira student Maxwell, said they’d been left unsettled.
“Today is the first day he ever asked to be driven to school and picked up. He normally rides his bike every day,” he said.
Wilslow said the school was urging students to travel in groups, not “dilly-dally” on the way home, be aware and to call police if anything happened – “just commonsense things”.
Peter Wilslow and his son Maxwell at Glen Eira Secondary School.Credit: Joe Armao
Another mother, walking home with her two children from nearby St Anthony’s Primary School, said she had not been able to sleep. “I feel for the family. It has been on my mind,” she said.
The Glen Eira College student who was abducted was in a serious but stable condition at the Royal Children’s Hospital on Wednesday evening.
Dwyer said the offenders were in a dark grey Volkswagen, were Caucasian in appearance and aged in their late teens. They were trying to steal phones, laptops and wallets, he said, and were not known to the victim.
Xavier College sent a letter to parents saying a group of students had been accosted near Glenferrie Oval in Hawthorn last Friday.
“[Students] were approached by a group of unknown people who acted in a violent way and stole property from the students,” Michael Ilott, director of the senior campus, wrote on Wednesday.
Xavier students were urged not to walk home alone and not spend time at Glenferrie Oval or surrounding areas.
Elwood College principal Todd Asensio also recently warned students to be vigilant when commuting to and from school after a woman tried to rob a student of her phone.
The incident had been reported to police and the student is safe and well, Asensio wrote last Thursday.
Glen Eira College principal Sheereen Kindler said school administrators had spoken to students on Tuesday about how to stay safe while travelling to and from school.
In a letter sent to parents and seen by The Age on Tuesday afternoon, Kindler said students had been advised to travel in groups or pairs where possible. She said students should remain alert to their surroundings and avoid using mobile phones while walking.
“Students should also travel directly to and from school and avoid making stops or side trips along the way,” Kinder wrote. “If you are catching public transport, walk directly to the bus stop or train station.”
Kindler said Monday’s attempted abduction had been a “shock to our school community” and the school would continue to “offer wellbeing supports for any student who needs it”.
Victoria Police’s mounted branch patrols near Glen Eira College on Wednesday. Credit: Nine News
A mother of a student at the school, who asked not to be identified, said her daughter was a part of the group walking home with the victim. She remained concerned about the safety of her daughter and her classmates.
“The kids are frightened. They don’t want to walk to and from school,” she said.
The mother said police should be more present before and after school. “It happened away from the school. But the students were definitely targeted,” she said.
Updates about the victim were trickling through to the community, she said. “My heart breaks for his family and him. His life won’t be the same after this.”
Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Colin Axup said it wasn’t a school problem, it was a community problem.
“There needs to be a whole government response, not just a school response,” he said.
An Education Department spokesperson said Glen Eira College was providing support to students, with extra staff designated at the exits during drop-off and pick-up times.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto urged the government to tackle the “multi-faceted” problem.
“We’ve got to look at all aspects of the criminal justice system – how we engage with youth in schools, diversionary programs, rehabilitation.”
He said limiting weapons should be a particular focus, but stressed there was “no one, simple answer”.
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