- High school student beaten by 12 of his classmates
- He received $1.2 million for the attack.
A former Sydney student has been awarded $1.2 million in compensation after 12 students beat him in what was described as a “horrific” assault.
The student, who cannot be identified because he was only 14 at the time of the 2017 assault, had attended Fairvale High School in western Sydney.
He was waiting for a bus on October 16, 2017, when he was told that another student (referred to as XY in a ruling published by the Supreme Court) wanted to speak to him.
After expressing that he did not want to speak to the other student, he attempted to seek help from inside the school between 3:26 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., however, no one was inside.
Returning to the bus stop, the young man was taken to a park where he was attacked by 12 students.
The student, now 21, sued the state of New South Wales through his mother over allegations the school failed in its duty of care by failing to monitor students at the bus stop outside of working hours. .
His mother had tried to call the school twice after her son contacted her to say he was about to be “beaten”, but was taken to the answering machine on two occasions, according to the Supreme Court ruling.
Footage on the students’ phones shows the boy being attacked with a spear from behind before being kicked, punched and stomped on his head and other parts of his body while on the ground.
A former Sydney student has been awarded $1.2 million in compensation after 12 students beat him in what was described as a “horrific” assault.
The footage was later uploaded to Instagram and court documents described it as “very distressing viewing.”
‘(The student) lies limp on the ground screaming. One of the students is recorded as saying: “Damn oath, eshay” as the aggression continues to intensify,” the published ruling states.
Photos of the student after the assault show that his ear had been bleeding, with an area ‘between the back of his ear to his hairline’ red so ‘“It looks like it has been trampled on, as it looks like marks from the sole of a shoe.”
He had to undergo ear surgery and suffered other injuries, as well as psychological damage, after the attack.
The student had previously been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2012, however the published ruling states that his “level of ASD worsened” after the assault, leading to a “decreased quality of life.”
‘He couldn’t return to school. Although he was transferred to another school, (the student) could no longer take the bus on his own,’ the published ruling states.
Judge Ian Harrison said the student “could have been able to live independently before the assault but will now find it difficult to do so without supervision” after the assault, which Judge Harrison said was “appalling”.
Judge Harrison found there was no teacher on the bus who could have intervened in the assault, while the instigator of the assault, XY, had also recently returned from suspension.
Judge Harrison found that there was no teacher on bus duty who could have intervened in the assault, while the instigator of the assault, XY, had also recently returned from suspension.
“The school breached its duty of care by failing to conduct an appropriate risk assessment of the student instigator before he was allowed to return to school following a suspension for prior violence,” the published judgment states.
‘There was no teacher on duty on the bus to discourage bad behavior or intervene when (the student) was taken from the school grounds.
‘The school administration office was closed in such a way that (the student) was unable to seek shelter with staff when he attempted to do so.
‘Any one or a combination of these omissions established factual causation, since they allowed the assault against (the student) to proceed in the manner in which it did and were a necessary condition for the assault to occur.
‘The severity and multitude of violations justify a determination of legal causation. They were inconsistent with the school’s primary duty: to keep its students safe.’
Judge Harrison awarded the student $1.2 million in compensation for non-economic losses, future economic losses, past out-of-pocket expenses, future medical expenses, care of a previous assistant, care of a future assistant, and the cost of future management of the funds.
