Shock footage reveals ‘unsafe’ Sunshine school

Footage shows the dire state of an “unsafe” Sunshine school, with students pleading for the caved-in roof and black mould to be fixed.

Two plucky Sunshine College North Campus students have pleaded publicly for the Andrews government to rebuild their school, which is falling apart, full of mould and unsafe.

In a three-minute YouTube clip, senior students Frank and Bailey show the dire state of their school campus which includes walls with large cracks, fallen ceilings, unusable spaces and black mould-infested rooms.

“There are cracks in the wall, everything is slowly falling apart,” they said, pointing out cracks up to 10cm wide, missing bricks, and falling exterior panels.

Sunshine College is a multi-campus public high school in Melbourne’s inner west which opened in 1992.

The video highlights the school’s dilapidated facilities.

The students are calling on the government to repair their school.

“My pop used to come to this school when it was a boys’ and girls’ school and hardly anything has been done since,” Frank said in the video.

“It’s been around for a long time. You have to be wary when you walk around the school in case something breaks or drops on your head,” he said.

The clip shows the old science block has windows that can’t be opened.

“They are rusted shut and all the dust builds up it stinks and it’s really bad,” Frank said.

The end of the clip, produced by parents and students of the school, has the message: “Victorian Government. Please give us a safe place to learn! Rebuild our school”.

Robert Ward, who has been the school council president for 35 years, told the Herald Sun the video was made as a “desperate plea” for the state government to urgently fix the school.

“We are losing enrolments as a result of these poor facilities, the school community is not happy,” Mr Ward said.

“When prospective parents tour the school, they see that it’s falling apart,” he said.

“We had a school council meeting last night and the parents weren’t very happy with what has progressed so far.

“The video was made because parents have had enough of this and said it was time to do something about it.”

Black mould on the bathroom ceiling.

A sink students are forced to use.

Mr Ward said the school had been waiting more than three years for a rebuild of the Sunshine North campus and upgrades at the West campus.

The gym is scheduled for rectification works, while the science wing of the school is due to be demolished.

“The kids are just heartbroken, they deserve better facilities, we want our voices heard,” he said.

A government spokesperson said they were “making record investments in education – which includes completing a $41m upgrade to Sunshine College’s north and west campuses to provide the best possible environment for students to learn in.”

In contrast to the dilapidated facilities shown, the school’s website calls it a “boutique learning experience” and showcases its “brand-new purpose-built STEM building”, updated library, basketball court and amphitheatre.

A hole in a roof.

A noticable crack in one wall.

A different picture emerges in the YouTube video, which shows the boys rolling a ball in the hallways to show the uneven floors. They also tour the boarded-up music room which has a roof that’s caved in and covered in plastic.

The old canteen is also no longer able to be used, as the boys show in the video.

“We stopped using it because there were holes in the floor and we didn’t want anyone falling over them,” Frank said.

The replacement boards patching up the floor are so uneven so the canteen is still considered unsafe and is not used.

Senior students Frank and Bailey uploaded the video to YouTube.

The boys show the black mould on the bathroom windows and ceiling. “The smell currently right now is horrid, we don’t use the toilets right now anymore because of the black mould, it’s not safe for a child to be in,” Bailey said.

The pair also show off the new science building which, in stark contrast to the rest of the school, is safe, new and well-equipped.

“If everything was updated like this we would love it because it would help us out with our education and the learning of the future generation,” Frank said.

According to the Victorian School Building Authority the government recently spent $41 million upgrading the school, which includes the new science centre at the north campus.

David Hodgett, opposition education spokesman, said the children at the school “were having to put up with school facilities that are below the standard that every child in Victoria expects and deserves”.

“The Andrews Government had up to eight years to upgrade Sunshine College and on their watch, have let it fall into disrepair,” he said.