- Indigenous school principal arrested by Northern Territory police
The headmaster of an Indigenous school in the Northern Territory has been charged with physically assaulting several children.
Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris has been arrested by Northern Territory police and is being held in Alice Springs jail, according to reports. The Australian.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler is understood to have been informed of the allegations, which are not sexual in nature, by Education Minister Mark Monaghan.
According to a school staff member, police had been investigating an incident two years ago in which children vandalized a building used for childcare.
“The kids came in through an unlocked door and sprayed paint everywhere,” the staff member said.
“They didn’t break any windows, the door wasn’t locked, they went in and had a great time.”
The “shocked” staff member said he had heard the arrest was due to that incident and “couldn’t believe it.”
Mr Morris, who has a PhD in Aboriginal trauma and teaches at Charles Darwin University, has previously been vocal in the media about the crisis involving Aboriginal children in remote communities.
Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris (pictured) has been charged with assaulting children over an incident in which they allegedly vandalised a school building.
Mr Morris said the school was in regular contact with local magistrates so that bail conditions could be amended to allow children as young as 12 to take part in after-school programmes.
She described students who did not feel safe returning home because they were “worried about their uncles” and instead wandered the streets of Alice Springs at night unsupervised.
Others had spoken to him saying they would rather be in a juvenile detention center because it was better than their home life, he said.
He spoke of an incident where teachers called him during the night and told him they were in their cars following a school minibus that had been stolen by a group of students for a joyride.
Footage from the August 2022 incident shows the Yipirinya school bus crashing through the gates and speeding away through the streets of Alice Springs at 9pm, pursued by teachers.
There were 10 students on board, the driver was 12 years old and the oldest person in the vehicle was 14.
The bus swerved through the streets as teachers flashed their headlights and honked their horns, yelling for them to stop.
‘You little jerk… stop it!’ a teacher shouted in frustration.
At several points the bus veered onto the wrong side of the road and left the road screeching its tires.
The chase ended when the boys jumped off while the bus was still moving outside an indigenous camp.
They then jumped fences and ran in opposite directions to avoid being caught.
The children returned to school the next day after the bus was vandalized and no one was charged.
More to follow.
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