Expert warning on violent school video trends as SA student clips surface again

Shocking school videos, including one which depicts an Adelaide student waving a knife at another as he performs a dance, continue to be posted online. See the video.

New shocking videos of violence between South Australian school children have emerged on social media – including a boy waving a knife in the face of another child as he performs what appears to be a TikTok-style dance.

A new Instagram account encouraging students to share violent content posted its first video on Sunday and has since featured more than a dozen incidents, including threatening behaviour and brawls – despite a mobile phone ban put in place in public schools in 2023 intended to limit bullying and violence on campus.

One video showed a student at Christian Brothers College being hit by a person while filming.

The person behind the camera hits the student across the face before shouting “are you going to hit me back?”

The visibly distressed student is heard saying “no” while trying to dodge further hits.

A video posted on Instagram showed a Christian Brothers College student being slapped and verbally tormented. Picture: @dead.happz

A video posted on Instagram showed a Playford International School student being forced at knifepoint to perform a TikTok style dance. Picture: @dead.happz

Another incident uploaded on Sunday, but understood to be captured on May 26 last year, depicted a young student at Playford International School with a knife pointed at him. He appears to be dancing to music in a social media trend-style video, and it’s unclear whether the boy genuinely felt threatened by the knife being waved in his face.

The videos come after data showed a significant decrease in schoolyard incidents since the state government banned mobile phones in all SA public high schools in Term 3 of 2023.

There were 228 violent incidents in terms three and four of 2023, after the ban had been implemented, compared to 319 in the same terms of the 2022 school year, official figures show.

But University of South Australia Adjunct professor Barbara Spears, who has studied cyber bullying for 30 years, said the phone ban would not stop further violent videos from surfacing.

“When students either individually or as a group gang up on another student or bully another student, it’s not going to stop that,” Prof Spears said.

“We need to look very closely at how we are working with young people to understand their social relationships, not just the learning environment.”

Christian Brothers College principal David Johnston said while the video did not depict a current student and that the incident was not filmed on campus. He said the school had referred it to authorities.

“We take issues concerning the safety of young people very seriously,” Mr Johnston said.

And the Education Department said while the video at Playford International School was filmed last year, they had only just become aware of it.

“The school has reported the incident to the SA Police and will be contacting the families of the students’ involved,” an Education Department spokeswoman said.

Education Minister Blair Boyer conceded that while the mobile phone ban has “definitely led to a decrease” in incidents, “this doesn’t mean you don’t see any of it”.

“There will still be some of it, but I think it is certainly reducing and I certainly don’t think it’s being pushed underground,” Mr Boyer said.

A spokesman for Instagram said they are investigating the account and “will take action as we find violations of our policies”.

Originally published as Expert warning on violent school video trends as SA student clips surface again