Shocking statistics show 24pc rise in schoolyard assaults in NSW

A NSW mum has told of the desperate measures she took to deal with her teen daughter’s schoolyard tormentors, as statistics show a shocking 24pc rise in playground assaults.

Lee-Anne was driving her teenage daughter to school when she noticed she was frozen in her seat with fear.

She coaxed her daughter into telling her the truth — that two former friends were waiting to bash her that day to film it and stream it online.

And new data shows Lee-Anne is one of a growing number of regional and rural mums forced to intervene to save their child from a violent ­assault at school.

Between 2021 and 2024 there has been a 24 per cent increase in the number of child victims of assault at school, with regional schools recording the highest number of assaults per capita.

The troubling statistics come as a new video emerged of a vicious fight between two Year 8 students in northern NSW.

A video of this vicious fight between two schoolgirls was posted to social media this week.

“There’s no simple solution, it’s a big problem, our kids are being physically assaulted and social media is giving a vehicle to allow bullying to thrive,” said Lee-Anne, who asked for her surname not to be ­revealed.

“It doesn’t matter where you live, in the city or the country, you can’t escape the internet and the constant hunt for attention by kids these days who seem to think assaulting people is normal.”

Child assault victims on school grounds per 100k, March 2021–March 2024

New data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows Dubbo, in the state’s central west, topped the list with the highest rate of assaults on the playground at school per population: 642 assaults per 100,000.

Armidale followed with 624 assaults, and Lithgow was third with 596.

Other areas with high rates of victims of assault included Moree Plains, Leeton, Inverell, Bathurst, Singleton, Mid Coast, Griffith and the Eurobodalla south coast.

It’s not just regional areas, though, recording an increase in violence.

In Campbelltown, in Sydney’s southwest, child assault victims were up 61 per cent from 2021 to 2024, the highest increase in the state.

If you are a girl, your chances of being assaulted at school in Campbelltown are even higher. Data shows the area has recorded an 84 per cent increase in child female victims of assault at school between 2021 and 2024.

Lee-Anne’s daughter was one of the lucky ones, after her mother took action.

“I knew in that moment she was frightened, really frightened and I had to do something,” she said.

The Year 9 student had mentioned in passing that some girls were “giving her a hard time” but her mum had no idea she genuinely feared that day she was about to be “set on and bashed”.

Campbelltown recorded an 84 per cent increase in female students being assaulted at school between 2021 and 2024. File picture: iStock

Lee-Anne coaxed her daughter into telling her the truth. That two girls in her year, once her close friends, were marching around the school the previous day, shouting out her name.

“I was sitting in class and I could hear them outside shouting my name. They were just walking the corridors saying where is she, where is she,” the student told The Saturday Telegraph.

“I knew they meant it. They were coming for me. They had bashed people before. It would start out like saying shit about each other then they’d just lay into them while their friends filmed it.

“I’ve seen heaps of the videos, we all have, it’s what happens. You go to school every day knowing that. I told my older sister who went to the school years before me but she must steer clear of them. She doesn’t get it. People older don’t get what it’s like now.”

Lee-Anne took matters into her own hands. She grabbed her daughter’s phone and called one of the two girls in question.

She revealed who she was and warned the girl to “back off” and told her that she was notifying the school authorities.

“I told her I hoped she told her mother that I had rung her too,” she said.

Lee-Anne said while she knew calling the student wasn’t the best approach, she felt so helpless and wanted the bullying — that she had missed for several months — to stop.

“In the end I took my daughter out of the school,” she said.

“I know it’s not the fault of one school, it’s today’s society, but at the same time I needed a circuit-breaker for my daughter.

“I didn’t think the punishment for this kind of behaviour was enough.

“There’s no simple solution, it’s a big problem in society today.”

Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800

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