Parents and carers send their children to school under the assumption that they will be safe.
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Each morning, we wave them off and expect that while they might not always want to attend school, that it is one place that they should not fear.
There is no doubt that bullying is rife in schools, it has been for decades.
Until now, it has been among the primary concern of parents, that their child will be subject to the taunts or bullying from another.
But a recent report has shown that there are potentially far worse dangers than name calling lurking the hallways.
It is reported that the number of violent incidents in Wagga schools has increased at an alarming rate.
And we aren’t just talking about some shoving or hair pulling.
The heavily-redacted version of incidents from within the city’s schools still paints a very vivid picture of violence, including incidents involving weapons, drugs and self harm.
Children are bringing weapons to school, they are harming themselves at school and supplying or buying drugs on school grounds.
It’s a far cry from the frequent gun violence seen in American education institutes but it’s also so far removed from what we are accustomed to in Wagga.
We know children are not angels but it is confronting when presented with the statistics.
There are few things more frightening than seeing an ambulance or police car at a school but it is becoming more prevalent.
Even more worrying is the report stating that technology was the source or cause of a number of incidents.
It’s hard to get your hands on a weapon but most children have a form of technology, whether it be an iPad or iPhone.
It’s not enough to tell children to stop it, they know this behaviour is wrong.
And pulling children out of school is not the solution.
But short of installing metal detectors or performing bag inspections, it’s hard to say what the fix to such a serious problem is.