Teachers, students at 140 schools locked in safety behind $16m fences

A rise in crime around Queensland state schools has forced the government to shell out millions to build two-metre high spiked steel fences at 140 of the state’s highest-risk schools.

A rise in crime around state schools has forced the government to shell out millions of dollars to build two-metre high spiked black steel fences at 140 of the state’s highest risk schools.

More than $16 million will be spent on the fences designed to lock students and teachers in safety and keep vandals and thieves out at night.

So far 140 state schools in the southeast have been deemed to have security risks so high they have had the black fences built around their entire perimeters.

Schools at Browns Plains, Mabel Park, Park Ridge, Cleveland, Victoria Point, Redland Bay, Park Ridge and Cavendish Rd, to name a few, already have the fences, which are locked during school hours with keys allocated so teachers can let themselves out.

One of the fences at Browns Plains State High.

However, teacher aides, substitute teachers and students participating in extra curricular sporting activities outside the gates, do not get keys.

An Education Department spokesman said the fences, along with CCTV, were allocated to schools with high security risks to protect students and staff.

The spokesman said security ratings at each school were reviewed annually based on information from reported incidents, which included students sneaking off to vape, family disputes, break-ins, vandalism, graffiti, arson and theft.

Sharp spikes are at the top of the 2m high fences.

“To date, no official complaints have been received by the department in relation to teachers being locked in, or students injured at any of the schools mentioned,” the spokesman said.

But teachers, who did not want to go on the record, reported not having enough keys for all staff and initial difficulty getting out of the gates at lunchtime.

Students at another school reported ripped clothes and minor injuries while trying to scale the fences as part of a game.

The spokesman said details of individual school arrangements could not be made public for security reasons but one of the most recent fences was installed at Cleveland District State High over Easter.

The spokesman said staff at the school had keys and the main office gate was open during school hours.

In 2020-21 fencing upgrades were completed at six schools, with a further 15 scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, under the $16.3 million project.

The department has a standing offer arrangement for suppliers of security fencing but schools may also engage these suppliers for self-managed works.