St John Vianney’s Primary School accused of failing to provide appropriate and adequate supervision when fight broke out

A year 1 student is in intensive care after he was allegedly bashed in a schoolyard fight in Mulgrave that left him with a brain haemorrhage and broken teeth.

Jayden Pham was allegedly punched in the head during a fight at St John Vianney’s Primary School in Mulgrave.

A seven-year-old boy has undergone brain surgery after he was allegedly punched in the head during a nasty fight at a school in Melbourne’s southeast.

Jayden Pham was struck when a dispute broke out among year 1 students at St John Vianney’s Primary School in Mulgrave on October 17.

His parents, Paul Pham and Julie Phan, claimed their son was left with serious injuries from the fight including a brain haemorrhage and broken teeth.

Jayden was taken to Monash Medical Centre and underwent surgery for bleeding on the brain.

He remains in intensive care as of Wednesday.

Jayden underwent surgery for bleeding on the brain.

He was struck when a dispute broke out among year 1 students.

Arnold Thomas and Becker senior associate Jennifer Lay claimed no teachers were present at the time of the fight but the school said “appropriate levels of supervision” were in place.

“We allege that the school has failed to have provide appropriate and adequate supervision,” she said.

“We are concerned about how the school has handled this situation as it seems the incident occurred while there were no teachers present,” she said.

“We also allege that the school was aware of the problematic behaviours of the child that inflicted the punches and that there should have been greater supervision of students.”

St John Vianney’s Primary School principal Andrew Mullaly said the student’s health “deteriorated significantly” in the days following the punch.

“The incident was investigated and found that the student had been struck once by another student as a result of a dispute in relation to a soccer match,” he said.

“Appropriate levels of supervision were in place in the playground when the incident occurred.

“Following the incident, the student was treated and assessed by a first-aid qualified staff member. Parents of both students were advised of the incident.

“The student returned to class, and to school in subsequent days, with no obvious signs of the serious and concerning medical issues which have since arisen.”

Ms Lay said Jayden’s serious injuries will have “lifelong impacts” on him.

“Our priority is to hold the school to account and to ensure that they have appropriate systems in place to protect children from similar attacks on the school premises,” she said.

Mr Mullaly said bullying and violence was not acceptable at the school.

“The safety and wellbeing of students is our number one priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously,” he said.

“In accordance with our clear policies and procedures, no form of bullying or violence is ever acceptable at St John Vianney’s.

“We hope and pray that this student makes a full and speedy recovery and we continue to offer our full support to the family.”

Originally published as St John Vianney’s Primary School accused of failing to provide appropriate and adequate supervision when fight broke out