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Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot going on in our schools at

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Speaker 1: the moment. A fifty percent rise in violent incidents in

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Speaker 1: state schools in the last year. The jumps of report

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Speaker 1: have involved reports that include weapons, property damage, sexualized behavior.

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Speaker 1: Data shows rising rates of e crime and there's obviously

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Speaker 1: then concerns about the welfare of students. In twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 1: critical incidents reported by school staff jumped to more than

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Speaker 1: thirteen thousand, one hundred from the previous years ten thousand,

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Speaker 1: three hundred, so almost three thousand more reports. Now, I

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Speaker 1: wonder if that's people being more aware of things or

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Speaker 1: things have become worse. Angela Fulkenberg's National President, Australian Primary

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Speaker 1: Principles Association. Angela, good morning, thank you for your.

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Speaker 2: Time, our pleasure, Matthew.

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Speaker 1: Certainly very concerning to read these stats today.

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Speaker 2: It is there certainly has been a trend over time

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Speaker 2: of increased incidents in school not disproportionate to the incidents

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Speaker 2: in communities as well. So what schools are a mirror

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Speaker 2: of what's happening in communities. We're noticing children who perhaps

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Speaker 2: are not sleeping as well as they should. They're coming

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Speaker 2: to school very tired and cranky. And that can apply

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Speaker 2: to the adults in their house as well.

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Speaker 1: Reports of parents bidding at teachers and principles, that's just unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: It's appalling. Look, it's these horrible incidents happen when adults

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Speaker 2: themselves are not good at self regulations. So you know,

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Speaker 2: they might be angry, but there is always a respectful

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Speaker 2: way to manage the relationships and no person in any

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Speaker 2: workplace should be subjected to that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, So what would you like to see things change?

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Speaker 1: I mean, is an education? Is this is common sense? Really? Kids?

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Speaker 1: Parents just behave yourselves. It's not We're used to for

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Speaker 1: some reason.

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Speaker 2: Oh hatthew if I had a magic wand exactly I

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Speaker 2: would make that happen. You know it is. It is

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Speaker 2: about the respectful relationship at every level. It's about taking

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Speaker 2: a pause. So sometimes children go home and they say, oh,

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Speaker 2: you know, something happened, and rather than the questioning about look,

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Speaker 2: you know, tell me more, it's jumping straight online. Even

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Speaker 2: you know, teachers and principles have been subject to some

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Speaker 2: quite appalling online behavior as well, rather than you know,

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Speaker 2: let's come together, let's work this out. Because always at

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Speaker 2: the heart, we want the child to be successful.

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Speaker 1: Confident and safe absolutely, so that that has to happen.

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Speaker 1: We don't want to get to the point, obviously, where

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Speaker 1: security is on hand in schools. Do schools have their

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Speaker 1: own security at the moment is that happening?

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Speaker 2: Schools can access security following an incident that might be,

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Speaker 2: you know, due to some student student groups not getting along. Certainly,

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Speaker 2: I can personally say I've had security following some quite

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Speaker 2: appalling parent behavior while that was being managed. And sometimes,

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Speaker 2: you know, security is necessary just to sort of calm

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Speaker 2: things down when things have been escalating amongst them behavior.

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Speaker 1: There'd be all sorts of different programs running in schools

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Speaker 1: to deal with bullying. Yet bullying is up, assaults are up,

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Speaker 1: arrests are up, dangerous life threatening behavior up. It's all up,

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Speaker 1: e crime up. Some of these are almost doubling. Arrests

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Speaker 1: have almost doubled from fifty seven to ninety nine. This

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Speaker 1: is trending in the wrong way. And I'm sure there

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Speaker 1: must be any number of programs. As an association, do

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Speaker 1: you have concerns for your members? You must have.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, certainly we've been tracking principal well being for

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Speaker 2: over eleven years, and certainly across Australia, so we're talking Catholic, independent,

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Speaker 2: and public violence against Principles has increased seventy five percent

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Speaker 2: in that eleven years. Principles will do their very best

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Speaker 2: to manage things to calm it because schools are places,

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Speaker 2: as I've said before, for learning and where children should

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Speaker 2: be safe, and quite often the community would have no

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Speaker 2: idea about some of the behavior of their own, their

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Speaker 2: peers and members. We want to keep it calm, but

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Speaker 2: we need some really clear support across all systems about

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Speaker 2: what is respectful behavior and what absolutely will not be tolerated.

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Speaker 1: I'll put this to the Minister next. Blair Boyer has

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Speaker 1: said that the ban on mobile phones has helped turn

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Speaker 1: the tide. But the figures I'm looking at and they're

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Speaker 1: printed in the paper today tell a different story.

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Speaker 2: I think that certainly a lot of the student to

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Speaker 2: student behavior which has inflamed things. Schools sometimes spent a

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Speaker 2: lot of time unpacking behavior that actually happened outside of

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Speaker 2: school but is brought in because of concern things like filming.

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Speaker 2: Has We've really appreciated the reduction, However, post COVID, there's

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of behavior that we're still working on,

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Speaker 2: particularly around self regulation, which is the ability to self

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Speaker 2: food and manage your emotion and all we're talking about.

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Speaker 1: And as you said at the start, a lot of

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Speaker 1: this is reflected from what happens at home. So perhaps

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Speaker 1: the problem is there.

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Speaker 2: I think it's in the community if we see it.

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Speaker 2: We see it in the road rage, we see it

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Speaker 2: in vicious outbursts on buses. Again, it's how do we

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Speaker 2: all stand together to say, actually, nobody should be living

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Speaker 2: in an environment like that, and children learn from what

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Speaker 2: is modeled. All of us have a responsibility to model

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Speaker 2: the right behaviors.

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Speaker 1: All right, Angela, appreciate your time. Thank you a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Angela Falkenberg, National President, Primary Principles Association. The Education Minister

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Speaker 1: in essay, Blair Boyer is on the line. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: coming on, minister.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Good morning, Matthew. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: These figures are trending the wrong way, aren't they. For

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Speaker 1: a range of issues. Arrests is concerning fifty seven to

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Speaker 1: ninety nine. I imagine some are kids and some would

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Speaker 1: be parents.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, now listen, of course, it's concerning any incidents of

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Speaker 3: violence in schools are concerning and very concerning to me,

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Speaker 3: both as the education minister in this state, and as

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Speaker 3: someone who has three daughters at a public primary school.

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Speaker 3: What I will point out though, is that if the

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Speaker 3: story from today uses data that compares the twenty twenty

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Speaker 3: two year to the twenty twenty three year, where we

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Speaker 3: certainly saw an increase, and in fact, as Angelos said

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Speaker 3: just before, we've seen that trend rise for a number

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Speaker 3: of years. The growth in what we refer to as

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Speaker 3: total incidents here critical incidents has grown in twenty twenty

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Speaker 3: one by twenty percent, then in twenty twenty two it

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Speaker 3: grew by eleven point five percent. Then last year it

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Speaker 3: grew by twenty five percent, so you know, really steep growth.

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Speaker 3: But what I was out reporting yesterday with the premiere

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Speaker 3: along with our mobile phone band data, is that actually

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Speaker 3: the growth so far in twenty twenty four, keeping in

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Speaker 3: mind we're halfway through the year, has been just one percent,

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Speaker 3: so we are hoping that we are seeing a leveling off.

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Speaker 3: As I said, it's halfway through the year, so this

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Speaker 3: is not the final data, but it points to us

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Speaker 3: opposedly getting past that period that Angela referred to where

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Speaker 3: we've seen steep growth in increases and all those things

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Speaker 3: that you spoke about Matthew and hopefully getting to a

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Speaker 3: leveling off, and there is no doubt that the mobile

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Speaker 3: phone band in our public high school is contributing to that,

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Speaker 3: where we saw a ten percent reduction the start of

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Speaker 3: this year compared to the start of last year in

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Speaker 3: violent incidents. It's only one tool we've got, but I

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Speaker 3: think it's an important one. More work to do, but

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Speaker 3: I'm starting to feel a bit more confident that we're

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Speaker 3: starting to head in the right direction now and the

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Speaker 3: things that we're doing are actually helping to turn the dial.

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Speaker 1: I hope you're right now. Angela's point that a lot

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Speaker 1: of this is community base that kids in schools will

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Speaker 1: see this reflected as she said, on buses on public

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Speaker 1: transport out in the street, and I'm sure sadly in

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Speaker 1: their homes.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely right. And I think I've used this anecdote on

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Speaker 3: your program before. Matthew about my own dad's years forty

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Speaker 3: years in the public education system, and he finished twelve

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Speaker 3: years ago, and he said the thing he noticed most

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Speaker 3: from the start of his teaching career in about nineteen

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Speaker 3: seventy two to the end of it was the way

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Speaker 3: that parents treated teachers. He said at the end of it.

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Speaker 3: When he called teachers parents rather to say that your

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Speaker 3: child wasn't behaving well. He was almost yelled at on

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Speaker 3: a frequent occasion from having the audacity to suggest that

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Speaker 3: the child wasn't behaving well. And he said at the

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Speaker 3: start of his career in the seventies he would normally

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Speaker 3: be met with some resolve from those parents to talk

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Speaker 3: to their child about them behaving better. You know, stuff

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Speaker 3: like parents, stuff like parents, you know, spitting, as he said,

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Speaker 3: violence towards staff. That's all been on an increase. And

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Speaker 3: as Angela said, and as you just said, kids see that,

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Speaker 3: and they mirror that, and they mirror that behavior.

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Speaker 1: So how do we get on top of you get

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Speaker 1: kids arrested, kids reported for violence, mobile phone ban. If

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Speaker 1: that's working, that's fantastic and well done, if that's been

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Speaker 1: part of the solution here. But if a kid is

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Speaker 1: caught up in this and has bullied or committed an

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Speaker 1: act of violence on a school leading to an arrest,

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Speaker 1: for goodness sake, what punishments? I suppose not punishment so much.

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Speaker 1: The next steps from there is their counseling. Is their punishment?

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Speaker 1: Are they banned from the school? What happens.

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Speaker 3: All those things are true and yes, and we haven't

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Speaker 3: changed our settings in terms of suspensions or exclusions from school.

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Speaker 3: We take a strong line and as Minister I have

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Speaker 3: said repeatedly that I do think there is a place

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Speaker 3: for punishment still, I think, you know, we also need

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Speaker 3: to look at those other things that we need to

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Speaker 3: do around the stuff that Angelo spoke about before, around

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Speaker 3: how we teach better behaviors, and we're doing that explicitly

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Speaker 3: with a trial of self regulation that we've just started

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Speaker 3: at four thousand students are going to be doing across

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Speaker 3: the trials actually teach kids who basically can't self regulate,

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Speaker 3: which winds up as there maybe hurting a staff member,

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Speaker 3: hurting a classmate, throwing a chair, breaking a window, all

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Speaker 3: these things happen. To teach them what to do in

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Speaker 3: those situations so they don't respond like that. You reconnection

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Speaker 3: meetings when they come back to school after being suspended,

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Speaker 3: to try to settle them back in so they have

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Speaker 3: a better time at school. But I also think there

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Speaker 3: is still a place for suspending them when the behavior

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Speaker 3: is really serious. And I also think if the violence

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Speaker 3: is perpetrated against another student. Matthew I don't accept that

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Speaker 3: the perpetrator should be back at school the next week

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Speaker 3: with the victim. So we are still doing all those

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Speaker 3: things too. But I think, like any really complex societal problem,

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Speaker 3: that a school problem too. It's not just one silver bullet. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 3: We've got to sort of tackle it from a whole

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Speaker 3: heap of different angles to try to get it down.

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Speaker 3: And that's what we're doing, and I am open to

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Speaker 3: anything that works.

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Speaker 1: All right, Glee Boy, appreciate your time, Thank you, Thanks

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Speaker 1: back