A Darwin Middle school student kicked and punched in savage beating

Warning: Graphic. A video of a schoolgirl violently beating and ripping another student’s hair has shocked social media users.

Shocking footage has emerged of an incident involving students at an inner suburbs middle school where a schoolgirl was brutally beaten.

A female Darwin Middle School student was the victim of a confronting bashing in the bathrooms of the Atkins Dr campus.

The video – which has been shared across social media – shows one girl grabbing the hair of another female student and hurling her into the floor before hitting and kicking her while onlookers shield their faces from the attack.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said the students involved in the incident had been “managed in line with the appropriate behaviour policy”.

“Every child within our education system has the right to be educated in a safe school environment free from bullying and harassment,” she said.

“The Department of Education does not condone bullying, violence or harassment in any form within Territory schools.

“Meetings with the families are also taking place to provide additional support.”

It comes just weeks after Darwin Middle School announced it would remove the entry doors to the boys’ toilets in an attempt to reduce “students loitering” in the bathrooms.

In a statement, the Education Department wrote the “change was made due to feedback directly from students to support their safety”.

Despite this, the Department of Education said Darwin Middle School “had no plans to remove the female toilet doors” following this recent incident.

Flinders University professor of human development Phillip Slee told NT News victims of these forms of bullying can suffer “significant impacts” to their mental health.

“If documentation of the incident is online it acts as a constant reminder for the victim and effectively is a repetition of the event,” he said.

“On top of that, the victim doesn’t know who has seen the video or if it has been downloaded.”

Mr Slee said many factors can induce “violent behaviour” in a young person, such as the exposure to media “where the use of violence to resolve an issue” was accepted.

“In our culture today alternative ways of conflict resolution aren’t often seen,” he said.

“Options like sitting down and talking about issues or bringing in a third party are not discussed.

“So young people often think the appropriate way to go about resolving a problem is with a strong physical reaction.”

In recent years, many videos have emerged depicting acts of violence in Australian schools.

Mr Slee said this was due to a lack of guidelines in place – from social media organisations and families – to outline appropriate behaviour online.

“The ability to self-regulate, to stop and think, is not fully developed in young people,” he said.

“When you’re dealing with this kind of toxic incident, there are very few guidelines in terms of behaviour online.

“Young people struggle to know where the limits are or where to draw the line.

“You have to remember this generation has grown up in an era where everything is shared on social media.

“So when we see this kind of behaviour I think that calls for a response from the adults at home who need to assume some responsibility.”

The Education Department suspension guidelines outline any behaviour which poses “a danger, whether actual, perceived or threatened, to the health, safety or wellbeing of any person at the school” warrants a suspension.

However, the department outlines in its expulsion policy that expulsion should only be used as “a last resort and in exceptional and extreme circumstances”.

“The expulsion of a student from a Northern Territory government school can be considered where the student is involved in a single incident of such a serious nature that it may be necessary in the interests of other persons attending the school,” the guidelines read.

The department’s guidelines also state the expulsion of a student should be considered if they display a significant pattern of unacceptable behaviour” and all “behaviour management strategies have proven to be unsuccessful.