Teachers saw off armed school invaders

WHEN teachers at Brisbane's St Laurence's College say the children are their top priority, they mean it.

St. Laurence's College teachers Chris Oakes and Andrew Kendall

WHEN teachers at Brisbane's St Laurence's College say the children are their top priority, they mean it.

Five teachers from the Catholic boys school will today be honoured for fending off a group of armed thugs who terrorised and stabbed students during a violent playground invasion three years ago.

Andrew Kendall, Chris Oakes, Anthony Samois, Michael Sharkey and Edward Wallace have been awarded bravery citations in the Governor-General's Australian Bravery Decorations.

They confronted and then chased two groups of youths who had invaded the school on July 28, 2008.

Mr Oakes yesterday recalled the moment he placed himself between one of the students and a youth armed with a meat cleaver.

"I pulled our boy out of the way so it was just me and him," he said.

"Then he backed down and they took off."

Mr Oakes conceded it could have been far worse.

"I knew there was very real imminent danger, but it's all about protecting the kids."

He said receiving a bravery citation was bitter-sweet.

"It's very humbling to be honoured, but there was a huge cost to the students, to the youths who were responsible, so we would have preferred that it had never happened."

Mr Kendall, a teacher at St Laurence's for 15 years, said it happened so quickly that instinct took over.

"You just react," he said.

Four of the teachers were former St Laurence's students.

Queenslanders feature prominently in the awards, including a Navy sailor and several police officers including Glen Damro, who chased and caught the man responsible for the Childers Palace backpackers hostel fire in 2000.

Special posthumous awards have been given to NSW couple Joseph and Carole Sherry, who drowned at Ballina Beach last year while trying to save their three children in rough surf.

----------

AWARD FOR EXPLOSION RESCUERS

EIGHTEEN members of the Australian Defence Force who were heavily criticised but later praised for their actions when an asylum seeker boat exploded, have been recognised with a group bravery citation.

The group of 15 men and three women, who rescued about 40 injured asylum seekers from a burning boat in the Timor Sea in 2009, are among those to be decorated by Governor-General Quentin Bryce for "placing the safety and lives of others before their own".

Three Afghan asylum seekers drowned after being blown off the boat - known as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel (SIEV) 36 - when it exploded near Ashmore Reef on April 16 while under the control of the Australian Navy.

The bodies of another two men were never recovered and they too were presumed drowned.

In his opening remarks to a coronial inquest last year, Stephen Walsh, QC, asked Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh to consider whether the actions of the Defence Force may have contributed to the deaths.

The inquest heard many of the ADF members involved were not adequately trained and made a number of critical mistakes while seizing control of SIEV 36.

Mr Walsh later said the coroner could be satisfied that the lessons of SIEV 36 had been learned and acted on following an internal ADF review.

About 20 ADF personnel involved in the SIEV 36 rescue were last year honoured in an awards ceremony in Darwin for outstanding service and courage.

A further 14 were honoured at a ceremony in Cairns in April last year.