An incident at Armidale Secondary College on Tuesday morning led to a school lockdown, and ended with arrests, people in hospital, a police officer accused of striking a child, and school leadership accused of suspending students who were not involved.
The disturbance reportedly began around 10.30am when Year 7 students became involved in a physical altercation, during which staff members who attempted to intervene were allegedly assaulted.
A spokesperson for NSW Police confirmed that three individuals—a woman and two young girls—were arrested following the incident.
“A woman and two young girls have been arrested after school staff and police were allegedly assaulted in Armidale today,” the spokesperson said.
“Police arrived and were told two girls aged 11 and 13 had allegedly assaulted staff members after they attempted to assault another student,” the spokesperson said.
“No students were injured; however, four staff members were treated for minor injuries, with two being taken to Armidale Hospital for further treatment.”
Both girls were arrested, and during the process, the 13-year-old allegedly assaulted a police officer.
The situation escalated further when a 34-year-old woman arrived at the school and allegedly verbally abused both staff and police officers.
“She was issued a move-on direction by police; however, she allegedly refused and was arrested,” police said.
“During the arrest, the woman allegedly resisted police before being taken to Armidale Police Station. She was charged with refuse/fail to comply with direction, hinder or resist police officer in the execution of duty, and intimidate police officer in execution of duty.”
The woman was refused bail and was set to appear before Inverell Local Court. Meanwhile, the two girls were released pending further investigations.
Following the incident, the school sent a vague letter to parents on the events and advising them of the lockdown.
“To allow staff to deal effectively with a student behaviour matter, the school enacted its lockdown procedure at approximately 10:30 a.m. today,” the letter read.
“Students remained in their classrooms with teachers until the matter had been dealt with.”
“Emergency services were called as a precaution and helped staff resolve the matter, which occurred at approximately 11:45 a.m., when normal college operations resumed.
“An assembly was called to inform all students about what had occurred, and support was offered to those who may have been affected emotionally by the incident.
“While no students were hurt, four staff received first aid for injuries received while addressing the student behaviour, and two were taken off site for a medical assessment.”
Conflicting accounts of the incident
However, student witnesses provided a different version of events, which conflicts with the official police and school reports. Several students recorded videos of the incident, and footage seen by New England Times shows a police officer forcefully restraining a teenage girl.
According to the footage, the girl attempts to pull away, prompting the officer to move against her, which then escalates into a violent interaction. The video appears to show the considerably larger male officer raising his fist and striking the girl before wrestling her to the ground.
New England Times cannot publish the video for legal reasons.
Student witnesses have also claimed that the girls were injured and received medical attention.
NSW Ambulance confirmed they were called to the scene closer to 11 a.m., and say they assessed six patients – not just the four teachers – before transporting two to Armidale Hospital for further evaluation.
In the aftermath, the school has reportedly threatened students and even suspended students for filming.
One student who did not film any of the violence, only the activity afterwards, and did not provide any video or other evidence to the Times, will reportedly be lodging a formal complaint with the Department of Education after being coerced by senior leadership of the school to write a statement of admission, and despite having deleted the footage on his phone. He was given a four day suspension for doing as instructed by teachers, which will cause the year 12 student to miss a major exam.
A statement from the NSW Department of Education confirmed the suspension of bystanders, as well as the students involved in the violence.
“Two students were arrested by police and escorted from the school grounds. Both students were immediately suspended by the school,” the Department spokesperson said.
“Other students who filmed have also been suspended.”
“The school is offering counselling support to all students and staff.”
Multiple students have again accused school leadership of being more interested in the public reputation of the school than their welfare.
History repeats
The incident has once again raised concerns about student behaviour and school leadership and police responses at the school, which has experienced multiple disturbances in recent years. While new Principal Kim Allford is generally well liked and is understood to be making a significant difference, the issues facing the merged school cannot be fixed by good leadership alone.
The built environment of the school has also played an issue in this event, as it was in so many of the issues detailed in our investigation in 2023. Classes were allegedly left unattended in unlockable classrooms during the lockdown, watching events through the full length glass windows that are a hallmark feature of the school. There are report building inspections last November deemed the classroom environment ‘unteachable’, and that tens of millions of dollars worth of renovations to the still new school will be required for the school to be transformed into an appropriate learning environment.
Entrenched issues in the community, including long held divisions between families in Armidale, and other difficult cultural issues also revealed in our investigation, have been magnified in the single high school environment where children and families have no options or escape other than private school. Many have called for Duval High to be reopened and the merged school to be declared a failure.
Update: This story has been updated to add a brief statement from the Department of Education confirming the suspensions.
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