The rising tide of school violence in WA continues unabated!

In May 2023, a 15 year old boy fired a gun in the car park of a Two Rocks school, sparking a lockdown, while at a Carine High School in December,  a 16 year old boy was allegedly stabbed twice in the back by a 15 year old girl.

The WA teacher’s union is calling for effective action to address the growing problem of school violence as it’s reported that WA students are taking weapons into schools in far greater numbers than their Victorian counterparts.

WA Today reported there were 114 instances where students took prohibited weapons to schools in 2022 compared with just 78 in Victoria, despite WA having less than half the public school population. 

A recent report commissioned by the union revealed school based violent events in WA were happening once every 45 minutes – that’s 11 times a day! 

A WA Teachers’ Facebook page revealed one teacher had been kicked in the stomach while she was heavily pregnant and 90 per cent of WA teachers surveyed experienced an incident involving violent behaviour at least once per term at their school in 2023 and 31 per cent say they’ve been the victims of physical violence at least once in the school year.

To complicate things, half of all teachers surveyed say the violence has not come from students, but from their parents.