Aurukun in the news again today.
The school again....
TEACHERS WANT SCHOOL SHUT
EXCLUSIVE - LUKE WILLIAMS
Aurukun State School teachers are calling on the state government to close the
violence-stricken school amid daily lockdowns because of assaults, threats of sexual violence and kids carrying machetes.Multiple sources say students are increasingly being knocked out in assaults in the schoolyard,
teachers are often threatened with rape and children from prep upwards are threatening and attacking others with scissors,
knives, star pickets, fence palings, machetes and iron bars regularly.“It is a
high occupational violence school but since mid-last year it has been next level,” an education
department worker said.
“The school
goes into lockdown nearly every day because of violence.”
This week, on the day a department official visited, there were
two instances of children threatening others with a machete and a large knife.A new teacher who had never worked in a remote school reportedly was
so upset that she started vomiting.Safety in Aurukun has been raised at the Queensland Teachers Union state council, where a member was advised this month that the
“QTU is preparing to cease work in that school due to safety of staff”.Counsellors were also flown in to the school on Tuesday.
“The school is in crisis, at rock bottom,” another source said. “It’s an asylum …. locals tell us it is the worst in their lifetime.”3/22/24, 12:19 PM The Courier Mail
2/2In one incident late last year,
a student was allegedly raped by another student, and the girl was also allegedly choked unconscious during the ordeal.
“Staff morale is at an all-time low,” the worker said, with
10 of the school’s 23 staff expected to resign by the
end of term despite a $5000 bonus offered by the department for them to stay.
“
Staff laughed at that $5000 bonus,” they said.
Education insiders say
many of the students reportedly can’t read and just one in three students attend schooleach day.
Outcome 5 of the national Closing the Gap target aims to increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people attaining year 12 to 96 per cent.
Census data indicates
the number living in Aurukun with a year 12 pass or a university degree has declined since 2011.The QTU has been trying to find a flight into Aurukun this week as they have canvassed the
possibility of evacuating the teachers and sounded out staff about whether the situation was “as bad as 2016”.
In
May 2016, the school was shut down after teachers were evacuated from the school twice in one month.“I told them t
he school does need to be shut down again now,” a teacher at the school said. “It definitely warrants it.”
A spokesman from the Department of Education said: “The department is
not considering closing the school temporarily and is working with other government agencies, and … with the Aurukun community, to ensure safety for all students and staff at Aurukun State School.
What a joke. Closing the GAP isn't working TGD ... because it's all a one way street.
If it wasn't for the wet season hanging on up there I believe all the teachers should resign, tell QLD Education to get stuffed, pack up and drive up to Weipa ... it's only 80 - 90 klm.
When they get home make a submission to their Union for a case to sue QLD Education for a failure to provide a safe work environment.
Time to leave this mob to their own devices and withdraw all govt services & staff.
Aurukun Mayoral candidate Barbera Bandicootcha can teach the little darlings.
She'll be their drink driving instructor.