Beaudesert High: ‘Going to school made me feel dead inside’

A former student at Beaudesert State High has written a raw account of their time at the troubled school.

A former student at Beaudesert State High has written a raw account of their time at the troubled school.

“That school nearly killed me. I couldn’t eat, sleep and, like everyone else, I was always anxious to go to school. I’ve never seen kids so depressed, and many come to school high or drunk just to get through the day … I’m talking from grade 7 onwards.

It’s a very toxic place. Before I left in 2022, I’d be walking around just watching everything fall apart due to the putrid culture – kids spitting at people in the hallways, starting fights almost daily, swearing at teachers, pulling down kids’ pants, doing drugs.

There were multiple sexual assaults swept under the carpet and teachers would treat us as if these things didn’t happen.

It was a nasty cycle with victims being followed around school and mocked by the perpetrators, then being bullied online.

It’s a disgusting environment, and it chips away at you until you’re a completely different person – every year you go on, it drags you down further until you’re so stressed out and sick.

Kids fighting at Beaudesert State High School. Picture: Supplied.

That school made me feel dead inside, and it changes you to the point you don’t know who are you.

I really worry about the kids who are left.

Kids fighting at Beaudesert State High School. Picture: Supplied

There are (year) sevens vaping in the toilet and you can smell marijuana everywhere – even the younger grades are getting high, greening out in the bathroom.

There are two known places to smoke – the “weed tree” on the Grade 9 oval, and at the back of the school.

A lot in the older grades take under their wing the grade 7s and make shit personalities out of them.

These outliers are genuinely putrid and are shaping little kids to be just as putrid.

I don’t blame the school for what happens, but it’s how they deal with things and react that is disgusting.

I was not bullied myself and am really grateful for my friends, yet so many kids have been victims but because the school does nothing to address complaints, kids get so upset and fight back.

You don’t poke a bear – if you back a bear into a corner it will strike back. But what happens then is the victims are the ones suspended while the perpetrators get away with it.

I couldn’t wait to get out of that school – but my mental health is still not great.

My grandmother said to me recently, “Last year you just looked sick, there was no life left in you, but now you seem so much happier and healthier,” and that makes me sad.

No kid should feel this way at school.”