Youth crime Qld: Logan, Cairns schools tailored to juvenile offenders

As Premier David Crisafulli admits to an exodus of teachers, he has unveiled a special school for youths with criminal records.

Premier David Crisafulli at Ohana college in Logan with Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber on Sunday. Picture Lachie Millard

Premier David Crisafulli has conceded that Queensland teachers are quitting in record numbers, as the state government launches a second youth justice school exclusively for children on court orders.

The Logan youth justice school is in addition to the school announced in Cairns, and will be run by Ohana For Youth special assistance education organisation.

Children aged 12 to 17 will be eligible to attend and will be hand-selected by the Youth Justice Department, with Ohana to have partial access to their criminal background.

Students will embark on up to 12-hour school days tailored to individual learning behaviour or special needs.

Each school will have 50 students and will need to receive federal curriculum accreditation ahead of planned openings in 2026.

The Queensland government will invest $40m to establish both schools, with ongoing operational funding to be budgeted at a later date.

Mr Crisafulli said it was one step to making classrooms safer for teachers and to help the state’s most at-risk kids escape the cycle of crime.

“These kids are on youth justice orders, and they’ve reached the last chance saloon, and we’ve got to turn them around before that lifetime of in and out of youth detention, “ he said.

“We’ve got to deal with the attrition rates at the moment that are teachers have been leaving at record numbers over the course of particularly last five or six years, and we have to do better for them and that looks like safer classrooms and less regulation that is really bogging them down.

“I’m sure that assists teachers in providing greater control for those classrooms.

“But that’s not the main reason we’re doing these. The main reason we’re doing these is to give kids one more chance before they spiral into a life that is of no value.”

Ohana Youth College CEO Aaron Devine with Minister for Youth Justice and Victim Support Laura Gerber and Premier David Crisafulli. Picture: Lachie Millard

It comes after The Courier-Mail revealed at least 100 teacher vacancies had been posted on the government’s smart jobs website amid warnings from unions that attrition rates would worsen if conditions didn’t improve.

The youth justice schools will form part of the government’s early intervention and rehabilitation program alongside crime prevention schools and the 12-month staying on track program for juveniles leaving detention.

Ohana For Youth CEO Aaron Devine said there would be no issues with the concentration of high-risk youth offenders at the one school.

“We don’t see any concerns with bringing young people together, in actual fact, we think it’s a great way for young people to work together and support each other outside of school,” he said.

“We will work with young people, we will feed the young people, we will support them and then we’ll provide them extra-curricular activities that they are interested in to keep them engaged in learning.”

Ms Gerber said the Logan and Cairns school campus locations were specifically selected based on heightened crime activity.

“Right now, there are 130 kids on active youth justice orders in this (Logan) district alone,” she said.

“We know that it is a crime hotspot, we know that it needs help, and that is the same with Cairns.

“These youth are on bail, they’re on conditional release orders, they’re on probation.

“These are youth that require an intense level of supervision and care.”

Originally published as Youth crime Qld: Logan, Cairns schools tailored to juvenile offenders