WHEN A 12-YEAR-OLD WAS KILLED RECENTLY, A NATION WONDERED: 'IS SCHOOL VIOLENCE OUT OF CONTROL?' JO EARP INVESTIGATES
Knives in schools is an issue that has been thrust firmly into the media spotlight since the tragic stabbing death of 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher in Queensland, with more incidents involving teens being reported every week.
“Authorities in denial”, ‘Knife blitz’ ‘Students must be kept safe’ and ‘Security guards flagged for schools’ scream the headlines, coupled with hundreds of column inches of comment and fierce debate about what needs to be done.
Differences in recording methods, a lack of statistics and a failure to break down school suspension into specific categories make it difficult to gauge if violence in secondary schools is on the rise in Australia, with much of the debate so far based on anecdotal evidence.
While Victoria has seen a rise in school suspensions for violence, carrying weapons and schoolyard assaults over the last decade, the Northern Territory has seen a fall in total school suspensions and a drop in physical and verbal assaults against staff.
After investigating the issue one thing is clear – educators are not willing to speak out about violence in schools. Queensland criminologist Paul Mazerolle, head of the violence research program at Griffith University and advisor to the state government, says it’s not surprising.
“I think there are a lot of reasons why people don’t want to talk about it. There might be commercial interests in terms of who wants to put their hand up and say ‘we’re a school that has a bullying problem or violence problem’...or draw attention to the issue,” says professor Mazerolle.
Even so, the public silence is not something that concerns the academic, who explains: “You can have quiet reformers, and that’s fine, as long as schools are doing something to tackle this issue. We need to be proactive, we can’t just sweep it under the carpet and say ‘look, there’s no bullying here, there’s no violence here, there’s no kids with knives.’ I think we’re kidding ourselves if that’s the situation.”
Mazerolle says evidence from youth focus groups suggest some kids are carrying knives as weapons, some for protection out of fear and some because they “want to be cool and tough.”He adds that, while violence is a very real issue for students and teachers, on balance, schools are safe and there is no need just yet for the metal detectors, security guards and body searches employed in some US high schools.
Australia shouldn’t be too quick to claim the moral high ground though. The latest data from Melbourne academic Dr Sheryl Hemphill rather surprisingly showed Victorian boys were more violent than their counterparts in Washington State.
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute study of 4000 students carried out at yearly intervals asked participants if they had taken part in a violent attack in the last 12 months. In Victoria, 17.5 per cent of boys aged 12 to 16 admitted violence compared to 12.6 per cent of Washington boys. It also found that students who were suspended from school or arrested were more likely to engage in violence 12 months later.
Hemphill told Australian Teacher Magazine: “For some reason, at the second time point [in the survey], there was a significant difference between Victoria and Washington State. For us, that raises more questions than it answers. What’s going on?
“We do know that more Victorian students are consuming alcohol than the Washington students...is it somehow linked with that? Is it something to do with the sorts of groups of young people that are hanging around together? Is it something about our community that we’re just a bit more tolerant of anti-social behaviour generally?”
How to tackle the problem is the million dollar question. In the library at Heathmont Secondary College, Victoria, more than 50 students, teachers and community professionals are listening intently to youth workers at a No Regrets workshop. The groundbreaking Year 9-11 violence-prevention program calls on students to set up projects to help drive a culture change within schools and the wider community.
The pilot initiative was developed as part of the Victorian education department’s Respectful Relationships Education in Schools strategy, in partnership with the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) and the Step Back Think project. Still in its infancy, only a handful of schools in Victoria have taken part and FYA chief executive officer Adam Smith says, in light of the tragic events in Brisbane, the case for expanding the scheme nationwide has never been stronger.
“I think you could say urgently, it should be, but it’s finding a balance...what makes No Regrets work right now is that it has a small number of passionate, committed young people running it who believe so much in this, and have got experience in the issue.
“Violence in schools, bullying, a whole range of social issues like that are not new and it’s something that schools are confronted with every day and are ready to address. I don’t know that there’s been an increase overnight in the rate of violence in schools but certainly, for different reasons, the spotlight is really on it now.”
Xavier College teacher Jono Chase is one of the speakers at the Heathmont SC workshop. The 23-year-old is a founding member of Step Back Think – a group formed in the wake of a life-changing violent assault on their friend James Macready-Bryan in the Melbourne CBD four years ago.
While Chase says: “There are rising rates of violent behaviour and assaults in secondary schools. I don’t think we can ignore it,” he’s aware it’s a difficult thing to measure: “We can’t quantify what we’re trying to prevent. If we prevent it, it won’t be recorded.”
As well as making vital connections with students, Chase knows the program has a wider benefit for schools: “Teachers feel like they have support too. The No Regrets pack gives them a structure.”
Senior Constable Stuart Sorrell, Maroondah Youth Resource Officer, believes the enthusiasm of students at the workshop is evidence young people are ready for change. “They’ve had enough,” he says. “We go into schools now and talk about the ramifications of knives. Sometimes the kids aren’t aware of what they’re engaged in. The kids who are carrying [knives] think they need to do it for self defence. They think that by modifying the stick, or the blade, that’s not a weapon.”
It’s not just students who need support as teachers often find themselves trying to defuse potentially violent situations. Mazerolle warns: “There’s an area of risk, employment risk really, dealing with volatile situations and I think this will be a thing of increasing significance for teachers.”
Joining academics and youth workers in the debate, singer and social commentator, Gary “Angry” Anderson told a federal hearing last month that giving schools greater authority is the key to eliminating violence.
The 63-year-old former drug and alcohol addict and father-of-four told the Sydney hearing on youth violence: "Sometimes, quite tragically, it takes to the very last desperate moment before anything is done.” He’s disappointed by the lack of respect shown in some schools and wants teachers to be “empowered" to end the droves of "decent" people leaving the profession.
Mazerolle wants to see more funding for continued research and early intervention for primary school children who find themselves in violent situations in a bid to prevent future problems in secondary school. He is also calling for a nationwide young people in schools survey looking at attitudes to violence and experiences.
In the meantime, Mazerolle is planning to host a two-day conference on youth violence in July. Whatever the outcome of that conference, it’s clear that youth violence in Australian schools and how to tackle is a complex issue which will continue to make headlines.
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