Department of Education Miranda Watt on Tennant Creek staff member assaulted

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know that police have arrested a fifteen year old
male following an assault that occurred at a high school
in Tenant Creek on Monday. So just after midday they
received a report that a staff member at the high
school on Stuart Street had been arrested, sorry, had been
arrested after well, sorry, the staff member had been assaulted

(00:20):
by a student. That fifteen year old was then arrested.
As I understand it now, police attended, They conveyed the
victim to the hospital for assessment, and shortly after three
pm that offender was arrested then at a residence on
Ambrose Street. Now, as of yesterday, he remained in police
custody with charges expected to follow. It's a shocking situation.

(00:42):
No person should have to go to work and be assaulted,
but our teachers certainly should not be subjected to this
kind of behavior from students. Now joining us on the
show is Miranda what, the executive Director of Schools and
Regions with the Department of Education and Training.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Miranda, Good morning, Katie, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah, thank you so much for your time. Can you
tell us from your perspective what happened at the high
school and how that staff member came to be assaulted.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah. Look, I can just start by saying that it's
not okay. As you said before, it's not okay for
our teachers to be assaulted and experience any violence and
aggression within our schools. On the day that it occurred.
On the other day that it occurred, the staff member
was outside the classroom. All other students were inside the

(01:35):
classroom speak using their going through their lessons. There was
a conversation that was occurring between the staff member and
the student, and that's where the incident occurred.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I mean, you feel, I really really feel for this
person to be at work and you know, being assaulted
is one thing, but to be a school teacher and
a student assaulting you is it would be absolutely horrifying.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Absolutely, I completely agree with you, Katie. It is unacceptable
for our staff member, a teacher, or a staff member
of our schools to attend their workplace and have this occur.
After the incident occurred, our chief executive did check in
with the staff member to make sure that she was okay.

(02:24):
She felt supported and was thankful that she had checked
in with her.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
What for the support is being provided to her and
to other staff since Monday's incident, because I would imagine
that it's you know that it's rocked the school to
some degree.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah. Absolutely, So we've been in regular contact with the
staff member, making sure that her well being is as
best as it can be in the circumstances. She has
been at home this week resting, and as with any
incidents that occur across our schools of this nature, we
have our employment assistant program that is available to staff member,

(03:02):
but also just the wraparound service of her colleagues and
other members of the department that we'll check in with
her personally. Also reached out to her as well, and
she appreciated those text messages and phone calls. Just that
way of supporting. I think from a community perspective always
makes you feel better when something like this has happened.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
What I mean, what does this incident say about safety
inside Territory schools right now? Are our teachers and support
staff adequately protected?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Look, these incidents are unfortunate. They don't happen every day,
but they do happen. Our schools have ways of managing
and working through situations like this and working with our
students that may respond unfortunately in the way that this
student has. It isn't okay for it to happen, But

(03:56):
our teachers do work very hard at preventing these things
from happening, and we've got policies and frameworks that the
schools use, principles teachers and staff and people within our
department used to manage and work through these circumstances should
they occur.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
So, what's happened with that student? Has the student been
expelled or suspended? What's the you know, what is the
consequence to those actions?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, well, obviously you touched on one of the consequences
in your introduction in terms of what that looks like
as a police matter. But the student has also been
suspended from school for.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
What period of time?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Look, I'm not sure of the period of time. That
our suspension guidelines have different different lengths of times that
we work through, and the school will work with the
department to determine what that length of time will be.
As we do with all suspensions, the circumstances of each

(04:57):
individual student and the incident are taken into consideration and
then work through. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Look, I'm not privy obviously to all of the details
surrounding this incident, but I know you know, as a
parent of teenage kids that if my kids were at
that school, I'd be thinking, how on earth is this
child not been expelled.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, look, that's something that sits within the Education Act.
But I can't make any comments on that at the
moment in terms of what that might look like.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
And was the student known to the school or you know,
in any sort of behavior management program or anything like
that prior to Monday.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah. Look, I can't really talk about the individual circumstances
of a student. But what I can talk about is
that students different students in terms of incidents that may
occur on a repeat basis, we do take those seriously,
and we do continue to work with families and the

(05:57):
student in terms of trying to mitigate any risks that
that continued behavior might be. In terms of this individual
young person, I can't really make any comments in terms
of what that's looked like.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Miranda. I know that parents are going to be pretty
concerned hearing this, whether they're in Tenant Kreeg or whether
they're at you know, they've got children at schools up
here in the top end. What assurances can you give,
you know, families that schools are a safe place for
their kids and also for staff.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah. Look, schools are a safe place for our young people.
We know that being at school is really is a
preventative way of making sure that we can engage successfully
in the community as we grow older and move into
the workplace. They are safe places. Incidents like this do
occur from time to time, and when it does occur,

(06:49):
what we do is we manage that situation through our frameworks,
through our guidelines, through our policies to support the rest
of the school community to continue to be safe and
work out what we can do in relation to continuing
to engage successfully in a positive and productive way with
students that might need some additional support in that area.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Miranda Whatt, the Executive Director of Schools and Regents with
the Department of Education and Training, really appreciate your time
this morning. Thank you for speaking with us.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
You're so welcome, Katie. I appreciate the time being able
to speak about it.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Thank you, and please, if you are speaking to that
teacher and tenant Craig, let her know that you know
everybody is thinking of her. I think it's an absolutely
terrible situation that she's had to endure, and I really
do hope that she's okay.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Thank you, Katie. I appreciate that and I certainly will
pass it across to the staff member.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Thank you, thanks so much,