Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (22:37): (2033) Today I received reports from my constituents that a year 8 student attempted to violently attack his brother at a junior campus at a local high school in South Gippsland. The brother fled and was able to lock himself in a classroom. The teacher who let the victim in got punched in the face by the perpetrator. She is a veteran female teacher. There were multiple male teachers, the principal and vice principal all trying to apprehend the student, but they were unable to. The student then noticed another female teacher on the school grounds on the phone. She was alerting police. He ran to her, and he punched her in the head. She fell against a brick wall. Another male teacher stood between her and the student to protect her. This student is thought to have then produced a machete, and the school went into lockdown. The police came and arrested the student and seized the weapon. This is unacceptable, and this is becoming a culture in the state of Victoria. Teachers have no powers to search lockers. They have no powers to check if children have knives. My adjournment is for the Minister for Education, and the action that I seek is for the minister to inform us what they will do immediately to make schools safe for students and teachers again, and to deal with the knife and machete crime that is absolutely rife in schools in the state of Victoria.