A SICKENING incident in an Irrawang High School classroom has left a local mum terrified to allow her twelve-year-old daughter to return to school.

On Wednesday 24 May at around 1:30pm Bianca’s daughter made her way to her religion classroom.

After getting her name marked off, Bianca’s daughter allegedly attempted to leave the room to attend the library, before finding her exit blocked by older students.

“She went and sat down in the classroom and then six to eight older kids who didn’t belong to that class entered the classroom and overwhelmed the teacher,” Bianca said.

As the teacher attempted to gain control of his classroom, the incident began.

In a video shared by students on social media, a student aged fourteen or fifteen can be seen approaching Bianca’s daughter at her desk, repeatedly asking ‘why are you calling me a pig?’ in a raised voice, before the camera pans
away as the classroom teacher attempts to shepherd students filming the incident out of the room.

The camera then pans back around to capture the older student on top of Bianca’s daughter on the floor of the classroom, appearing to land a sustained flurry of punches to the younger student’s head and torso.

“You can see the student sitting on my daughter’s chest, punching into her face,” Bianca said.

“My daughter approximates that she was punched around 20 times in the face.”

The teacher can then be seen on video lifting the older student from the altercation, who is then pictured leaving the room laughing.

Bianca said she was appalled by the viciousness of the attack, but equally shocked at the school’s response to the incident.

“After the assault, my daughter was left begging for ice in the classroom,” Bianca said.

“She was the only one assaulted in this scenario, so I don’t know why she wasn’t a priority.”

After being taken to the office to receive ice, a statement was taken by school staff and Bianca’s daughter was promptly sent home on the school bus.

Bianca believes the school failed in their duty of care to provide appropriate first aid.

“Because she took 20 blows to the face, my critique of the school is that it is a potential head injury.

“It should have been treated as a head injury.

“She was at risk of concussion for at least four hours, but they stuck her on a bus home straight away.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said, “First aid and wellbeing support were provided after the incident.

“The student chose to take a bus home.

“The student’s wellbeing was, and remains, the school’s priority.”

Bianca told News Of The Area that she wasn’t notified of the incident until after her daughter returned home from school.

“The first I heard about it was when she arrived home stressed and injured.

“Her older sister called me distressed at the state of her sister.”

Bianca then attempted to call Irrawang, however the phones were off as the school day had ended.

She then called the Police and the Department of Education.

The Department advised Bianca that they needed to let the school’s investigation run its course.

One of the School’s Deputy Principals then contacted Bianca later that afternoon, advising that the situation was under investigation.

Bianca then received a no-reply email on Thursday from the Deputy Principal, who claimed that the incident had been investigated and had been “dealt with under the Department’s Behaviour Policy”.

The Deputy Principal described the incident as “unacceptable” and said the school was taking it “very seriously”.

Bianca said this email “did not address any of the key issues”.

“I think the whole incident wasn’t handled well,” she said.

“My husband was on war exercise with the RAAF and had to be brought home because of the stress our family was under.

“We made the decision to turn up at the school on the Friday to address our concerns.

“We were taken in for a meeting with the school principal, who admitted openly to the failings of not rendering correct first aid for a head injury, putting our daughter at risk on the bus, even the failures that occurred in the lead up to the incident.”

Bianca’s daughter was involved in a separate altercation with a student from the same year in March, and said she had experienced threats of violence since that incident.

“These last few weeks she hasn’t wanted to go to school due to the continual threats she was experiencing,” Bianca said.

With concerns for her daughter’s welfare, Bianca approached the school the week prior to the recent classroom incident to discuss the issues.

“I was concerned about how much my daughter was being bullied and threatened in the classroom by some of the kids involved in the assault and asked for her to be moved class.

“There were failings in the lead up, and failings on the day.

“The school admitted to those failings and mistakes, but it feels like lip service.”

In the wake of the incident, Bianca said she can’t “in good conscience” return her daughter to the school.

“Because of privacy issues, they can’t tell us whether the girl who committed the assault will be returning to school.”

Following further discussions with local police, Bianca said she was told that police generally do not charge students for fights that occur at school.

“This wasn’t your typical school fight, and I don’t think we should be accepting violence in schools,” she said.

“This was a planned and premeditated assault on a younger child with their teacher present.

“If our children aren’t safe at school with their teacher present, what hope has any parent got?”

The filming and sharing of the incident also raises questions as to the effectiveness of the school’s no-phone policy.

Irrawang High School policy is that student mobile phones are placed in Yonder pouches during school hours.

“They introduced a no phone policy and Yondr pouches this year,” Bianca said.

“The no phone policy is not working.”

With her daughter’s future at the school now in doubt, Bianca is hoping the incident will lead to broad policy changes at Irrawang and the Department of Education.

“For me as a parent, the entire process has been really frustrating.

“You have this picture in your head that if this sort of incident occurred, this is how it should go.

“The lack of communication and lack of response has been really disheartening and stressful.

“I don’t want another parent to go through what we have.

“I want the school to change their processes in how they respond to a critical incident.

“I also want their response to violence and bullying to change.

“A kid should be able to attend their zoned school and be safe.”

In relation to the incident, the Department of Education told News Of The Area that “appropriate disciplinary action” has been taken, including educational support as deemed necessary.

Irrawang High School is reviewing parent communication and other processes to see where improvements can be made.

The school is reportedly working to establish safeguards and other measures for the student’s return.

By Doug CONNOR