Minister slams students involved in rolling brawl at Casuarina Square

SOME students could be banned from Casuarina Square as police investigate a rolling brawl involving multiple teens at the shopping centre

Some students could be banned from Casuarina Square as police investigate a rolling brawl involving multiple teens at the shopping centre on Tuesday

UPDATE: Casuarina Senior College has confirmed its students were involved in the incident, saying those students would now be suspended.

The school posted to its Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon confirming the fight involved “a number of” students enrolled at the college.

“The situation was de-escalated and, as appropriate, the police and families of students involved were contacted,” the statement reads.

“The college has a zero-tolerance policy to this behaviour and suspensions will be issued to those students directly involved.

“Thank you to students and staff for their co-operation and for upholding the expectations of Casuarina Senior College, positive school-wide positive (sic) behaviour today.”

EARLIER: SOME students could be banned from Casuarina Square as police investigate a rolling brawl involving multiple teens at the shopping centre on Tuesday.

A police spokeswoman said officers were called to the “disturbance” at about 3.50pm when the fight moved to the suburb’s bus exchange and had so far identified two people involved in the “main fight”.

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“At this stage we are reviewing CCTV to determine other offences and offenders but there was one main fight that police dealt with,” she said.

“This involved a 17-year-old male and another male whose ID and age we are currently looking to determine.”

The spokeswoman said there were “a number of youths that appear to be from different schools and areas” who were also being looked at as part of the investigation.

“We have one main fight between two male youths that police dealt with however, we are investigating through reviewing CCTV to determine other offences that may have occurred throughout the shopping centre and shopping precinct,” she said.

“The cause of the fight is yet to be determined.”

Territory Education Minister Eva Lawler said the students involved should be banned from the shopping centre but those not involved should not be punished for the others’ actions.

“It is often a few that make it difficult for many, those students involved need to have consequences for their actions, those students can be the ones who are banned from the shopping centre,” she said.

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“We don’t want to inconvenience all the other students in the northern suburbs who do the right thing and go to Casuarina.”

Ms Lawler, who is herself a former schoolteacher, said she was disappointed with the students for “bringing their school into disrepute”.

“The school will be working with those families (and) some of those students will be suspended but it is also a matter for the police as well,” she said.

“It’s very disappointing to think some of our older students haven’t got the skills to resolve the conflict, to sit down and actually mediate and work out what the issue is and (instead) resort to violence.”

Originally published as Minister slams students involved in rolling brawl at Casuarina Square