Acts of violence at Illawarra schools not isolated

Students at a high school - in NSW’s Illawarra region - are at the centre of a social media scandal, following the discovery of an Instagram page dedicated to posting videos of violent brawls between students.

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Documents have revealed that Illawarra and South Coast schools and authorities are grappling with random acts of violence in the playground.

Earlier this week an Instagram page surfaced, which has since been removed, featuring more than 20 videos of students from Kiama High in particular, in violent schoolyard brawls.

The videos showed students, a lot of the time in uniform, attacking each other with punches to the head, kicks to the face and expletive-ridden screaming matches.

One video in particular showed a young woman being fly-kicked in the head by another young woman, who follows up with a series of punches to the girl’s head, face and stomach.

NSW Government documents detailed that during the 2017 school year, there were 69 violent incidents recorded at schools in the Wollongong, Wollongong North and South Coast principal networks.

In one of the most serious incidents recorded, a student grabbed a pair of scissors and threatened to stab a principal.

In another incident, Shoalhaven police were called after a student attempted to assault one of their peers, forcing the school into lockdown.

From Terms 1 to 4 in 2018, there were 50 violent incidents recorded at schools in the same principal networks.

One of the schoolyard brawls posted on Instagram.

A violent brawl between two teenagers posted to a now removed Instagram page.

The Department of Education said it had made the incident reports accessible to the public to improve transparency, and that while schools are among the safest places in the community, from time to time, incidents did affect staff and students.

In relation to the videos posted on Instagram, a Department of Education spokesman said police had become involved following the discovery of the account in recent weeks.

“Police have been contacted to assist the school in ascertaining who may be responsible for this page, and any other similar pages,” the spokesman said.

The violent incidents are believed to have taken place over an extended period of time, and the department said disciplinary action had been taken against the students depicted in the videos.

“All students involved have been dealt with according to the school’s discipline policy,” the spokesman said.

The department said immediate steps were also taken to remove the graphic Instagram page, and that Kiama High “does not tolerate any violence or inappropriate anti-social behaviour from students, which includes the filming and distribution of film, of a violent nature”.

While the site has been removed and students involved appropriately punished, the department urged parents and carers to take note of what their children are doing on social media.

“The school and the department continue to encourage parents and carers to monitor their child’s social media usage and discuss the appropriate use of social media with their children, to support the messages provided to students by the school,” the spokesman said.