Fights, drugs, weapons: Southeast QLD schools with most police call-outs

Police have handled more than 350 incidents – some involving weapons – in two years at South East Queensland schools, new data shows, as the schools responsible for the most call-outs are revealed.

More than 200 alleged assaults, 150 alleged drug incidents and 17 alleged weapon offences have occurred inside the gates of southeast Queensland schools in the past two years, according to Queensland Police Service data.

Two particularly shocking incidents at Ipswich schools highlighted the issue, despite violent classroom crime being on the decline across the state.

In July, a Bremer State High School teenager was taken to Ipswich Hospital with minor head injuries following a brawl.

Only an hour earlier, police were called to Booval’s Sacred Heart Primary School after a student was involved in a fight while armed.

Neither incident was recorded by police.

A concerted police program to crackdown on violent and weapons crime, launched in 2019, has resulted in a drop in offences including illegal knives in classrooms.

A Queensland Police spokesman said all reports of weapons offences were taken very seriously and officers were committed to ensuring safety.

“Reports of weapons offences at Logan district educational facilities is not a common occurrence,” the spokesman said.

“If a weapons offence is reported to police, immediate and necessary action is taken.

“Parents should know that police take these matters extremely seriously and work closely with Education Queensland and the community to educate students on their safety, both within schools and the community.”

The spokesman said in 2019 police launched a campaign to educate the community on the dangers and consequences of carrying a knife or any other weapon.

“(It) targets young people aged 14 to 24 years due to their over-representation as both victims and offenders in knife-related incidents in the Logan district,” he said.

“The success of the Logan trial saw the campaign rolled out across the state (including Ipswich) in 2021.”

Logan Child Protection and Investigation Unit’s detective senior sergeant Grant Ralston and acting senior constable Deb McLachlan. Picture: Queensland Police Service

Queensland Police data showed how many times over the past six months and past two years officers charged someone with alleged drugs, weapons or assault crimes at Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands and Moreton schools.

Assaults appeared to be more common in Ipswich and Moreton than in Brisbane, Redland and Logan.

At Ipswich, Bremer State High School recorded a large number of alleged assaults, with 14 incidents reported in the past two years, followed closely by Ipswich State High with 12 alleged assaults.

Luckily, assaults have since dropped to two cases at Bremer and six at Ipswich High this year.
Moreton region schools also recorded a large number of alleged crimes.

Bremer State High School – the school Ipswich police are called to the most. Picture: Inga Williams / The Queensland Times

During the past six months, six assaults were reported to police at Caboolture State High School and two drug offences, however over the past two years 15 assaults were recorded.

Over the past six months three assaults occurred at Pine Rivers State High School, North Lakes State College, and Narangba Valley State High School, however Narangba also reported a drug and arson offence.

At Brisbane, Forest Lake State High reported four alleged assaults over a six-month period, and Corinda State High School and Centenary State High recorded three.

At Logan, Beenleigh State High appeared to be the Logan district school with the most alleged assaults, with two occurring over the past six months and nine over two years.

At Redland, Victoria Point State High School recorded the highest number of alleged crimes during the past two years.

It had four thefts, four assaults and two cases of property damage.

Alexandra Hills State High School also had a relatively high crime rate with two alleged assaults and a case of arson reported in the past six months.

The crimes recorded by police in the report were alleged — it was not known if the people charged were found guilty in a court.

The Queensland Police statistics contained many variables including whether a juvenile, staff member, parent or visitor committed the alleged offences.

The number of incidents was likely to be higher across the board, as police were not called to every school incident with a criminal element, nor did they report every incident they attended.
Also, larger schools would be expected, statistically, to be more likely to report such crimes.

A Department of Education spokesman said Queensland’s state schools are one of the safest places for young people and any situation that threatens the wellbeing of the entire school community is treated seriously.

“Every state school has a student code of conduct that identifies the school’s expectations about behaviour and outlines the possible range of consequences that may be used to respond to inappropriate behaviour,” he said.

“This includes physical aggression or the use of illicit or banned substances.”

The spokesman said the size of a school population, as with any community of people, contributes to different rates of incidents reported.

“Depending on the situation and assessment of risk, principals may determine it is necessary to contact the Queensland Police Service to seek further assistance or report a serious incident.”