School lock-down incident 'a disgrace'

A Geraldton public school principal has labelled “a disgrace” an incident this week in which a small group of unruly students caused a school lock-down.

John Willcock College principal Julie Campbell, in a letter sent to parents, said the incident on Wednesday required students to be briefly kept in classrooms to ensure their safety.

Ms Campbell said eight students were behaving in a “very intimidating manner”, looking to fight some students and banging on windows to try to get into classrooms.

Police were called and the students were suspended.

Ms Campbell said there was no physical assault on any person, no student was at risk of harm and no weapons were involved.

“However, the behaviour was a disgrace and I will not stand for it at this school,” she said.

“In addition to suspension, further work is being done with the students and their families to prevent a repeat of such behaviour.”

Ms Campbell said the incident undermined good and positive work at the school.

“Most of our students are very well-behaved and a credit to themselves and the school,” she said.

“However, our procedures for ensuring student safety worked very well and are consistent with the processes used by all schools in such situations.

“As we do after any incident, we are reviewing what happened so we can further strengthen our response for the future.”

The school caters for students in Years 7, 8 and 9.