Victorian schools plunged into 277 lockdowns in a single year, FOI documents reveal

A secret dossier documents extreme acts of violence – including students brandishing garden shears and threatening to kill – forcing Victorian schools into daily safety shutdowns.

Principals and teachers made more than 400 EduSafe Plus reports that year, with Victoria Police called to schools more than a hundred times.

A secret dossier of violence in state schools reveals students brandishing garden shears as weapons and threatening to slit the throats of other children, with entire campuses locked down daily.

More than 400 “critical incident” reports made by principals and teachers in Victoria’s government schools have been obtained by the Herald Sun under Freedom of Information laws.

The reports, which are lodged with the Education Department portal EduSafe, reveal schools had to enforce full lockdowns 233 times in just a year — an average of at least one per school day.

There were also 44 reports of partial or zoned lockdowns.

Victoria Police were alerted to 106 of the critical incidents, with officers called out to schools 72 times.

Victorian schools went into full or partial lockdown 277 times in one year.

Bad student behaviour including school fights, possession of weapons and vandalism prompted some of the lockdowns.

In one case, a primary school was forced into lockdown because a pupil was threatening staff with garden shears taken from a maintenance shed.

In another critical incident, schoolchildren were forced to barricade themselves in classrooms after a student started hurling chairs and threatened to kill another child.

“If you want to see a killer, I will slit your throat with a knife,” the student allegedly said.

In a separate scare, police were forced to respond after a student threatened teaching staff with a knife and a metal pole.

Police also attended an incident of a student “wielding a plastic gun” after arriving at a primary school.

The names of schools and some details that might identify students and staff have been removed from the dossier of incidents in the 2023 calendar year due to privacy concerns.

Opposition education spokesman Evan Mulholland said the frequency of lockdowns was “shocking” and was a “damning indictment of the Allan Labor Government’s complete failure to maintain safe school environments”.

“This isn’t a safe learning environment, it’s a state-wide crisis. We have students brandishing garden shears and knives, threatening to kill each other, and Labor’s response is a weak shrug,” he said.

“Every time a school is forced into a full lockdown, it’s proof that this government has let violence and chaos run rampant.

“(Labor) must immediately roll out real, enforceable safety measures and provide genuine support to schools to stamp out this violence and restore order in our schools.”

School children have been forced to barricade themselves in classrooms in a spate of violent incidents in Victoria. Picture: Nikki Short

Australian Catholic University Professor Theresa Dicke, who has researched the prevalence and impacts of critical incidents in schools, said the “ripple effects” of lockdowns could continue well after the event itself.

“Lockdowns usually follow a serious critical incident. These events disrupt the flow of learning and can leave students feeling unsafe or unsettled,” she said.

“Leaders and staff involved in violent incidents describe these experiences in our research as both distressing and exhausting.

“We need approaches where students, staff, school leaders, parents, and local services are all part of the safety net. When these groups work together, schools are better able to prevent incidents from escalating and support recovery when they do happen.”

Australian Principals Federation Victorian Branch President Tina King said lockdowns were enforced by school leaders after cautious consideration and only when circumstances warranted such measures.

“While the frequency of lockdowns might seem confronting, what it really demonstrates is that schools are acting quickly and decisively to keep people safe,” she said.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the most common offences committed at schools were burglaries, thefts and common assaults – “consistent with a schoolyard push and shove”.

“In addition to responding to incidents, police proactively visit schools across the state to enhance overall safety, provide advice on a range of topics relating to the law, safety and wellbeing, as well as develop solutions to steer young people away from crime,” she said.

As well as violent situations, bizarre incidents requiring Victoria Police support included a student being scratched by a kangaroo and a brown snake placing Deanside Primary into lockdown.

There were also 113 additional incidents logged for events such as police operations outside a school, natural disasters and trespassers.

A Department of Education spokesman said schools had strong policies and procedures to follow when incidents arose, which were regularly practised to ensure everyone was “comfortable with the process”.

“As a result, they overwhelmingly run smoothly when they occur,” he said.