Weapons, attacks part of school day
Primary school children attacking teachers with scissors and parents issuing death threats to principals are among dozens of violent incidents documented by WA public schools last month.
The confidential internal reports, obtained under freedom of information laws, come from the Education Department's online notification system that principals use to alert head office about critical incidents.
The first-hand accounts provide a rare insight into the problems teachers face daily.
Schools reported more than 185 incidents involving violence or threats of harm over just four weeks.
About 15 reports referred to students hurting or threatening others with weapons such as knives, scissors, knuckle dusters and pepper spray.
In one of about 10 reports involving students throwing chairs, bins, rocks or other objects, administration staff at a South West high school called police and retreated into an office after an "agitated" student threatened the deputy principal with a chair and threw it at a glass panel.
In one of about 15 reports of verbal threats by parents, a principal of a southern suburbs high school said a parent made it clear they had "biker club connections" and if problems were not sorted out, the parent would come to school and "drag the students out of the classes and assault them".
A northern suburbs primary school requested security guards after a parent on a violence restraining order rang up and left a message saying: "There's going to be a funeral."
The principal wrote: "This was a death threat."
Many cases involved students with disabilities punching, kicking, head butting and biting staff and other students.
The documents also reveal Australian Federal Police contacted a Wheatbelt school after someone used a school computer to threaten Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Police suspected a student because of grammar and spelling errors.
Education Department director-general Sharyn O'Neill said its nearly 800 schools were generally safe, but with 283,000 students there were incidents "from time to time".
The department recently updated guidelines for schools on how to manage risks, violent situations and hateful comments on social media.
Ms O'Neill said staff and students were entitled to work and learn in safe places free from aggressive behaviour, threats or violence.
"However, schools are a part of everyday community life, so unfortunately they are sometimes confronted with broader social issues such as aggressive and threatening behaviour from parents and students, 'stranger danger' incidents and problems arising from students' home lives that require support," she said.
She was always impressed with the skilful ways school staff handled complex and unpredictable situations.
"Where the matter involves bad behaviour or concerns about a student's wellbeing, we support schools strongly with psychologists and chaplains, and special programs to manage the behaviour of the most difficult students," she said.
