Warrnambool College staff reveal mental health impacts of 'unsafe ...

Staff crying in their cars and having to psych themselves up before entering classrooms.

A teacher being stalked around a supermarket by students.

Students bringing makeshift weapons into classrooms and hurling racist and sexist abuse at teachers. 

These are among the most serious allegations made by former and current staff at Warrnambool College, the south-west Victorian secondary school at the centre of a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal dispute between the state education department and WorkSafe.

Last year WorkSafe ordered the Victorian Education Department to place a dedicated mental health worker on site at Warrnambool College to support teachers reportedly facing up to 20 violent and sexist attacks a day.

Warrnambool College is the subject of a WorkSafe order.(ABC South West Vic: Matthew Neal)

The ABC understands the Victorian Department of Education is pushing back on the improvement notice because it says it will set a precedent for all state schools that the department cannot afford.

Three former and current Warrnambool College staff members described student behaviour towards other students and staff as "violent and vulgar", in and out of the classroom.

But they said the school was the canary in the coalmine and believed the issues were widespread across the state education system.

Each of the staff members spoke to the ABC on the condition of anonymity as they had been warned by the school or the education department not to talk to the media.

Screwdrivers, scissors snapped in half, and a piece of timber with nails poking out of one end were among the weapons staff said they saw students with at school. 

Dread and anxiety about doing yard duty was common among the current and former Warrnambool College staff who spoke to the ABC.

Former and current staff say their mental health has been affected.(ABC South West Vic: Matthew Neal)

A former staff member described an incident where, upon asking a group of students to move during recess, one student told a female teacher to "f*** off or I'll shove a toastie up ya".

The three staff members agreed the behaviour was usually directed towards female staff, however racist and anti-Semitic attacks were also common.

It is alleged two male students broke into the classroom of a Caucasian male teacher, "threw his stuff all around everywhere and wrote that he was a n***a on the whiteboard".

A female teacher was allegedly stalked by students while grocery shopping but was told the school could do nothing as the incident did not happen on campus, and that the police would not investigate.

"This intimidation and violence is leaving the school grounds because teachers are not protected on the school grounds, and then it's flowing over into everyday life as well," a former staff member said. 

"These are not things that you go to work as a teacher and expect to have to deal with."

The ABC understands that, out of about 1,200 students, Worksafe has identified about 70 responsible for the bad behaviour.

Former staff members told the ABC that suspensions and detentions are few and far between at Warrnambool College, with at least one student ignoring a suspension by continuing to attend school, and allegedly being allowed to attend class.

Sending students to sit outside the classroom is also no longer allowed because students at state schools have "the right to stay in the classroom", a staff member said.

"Doesn't matter what they did, they could be like running around and jumping out of windows, calling you c**t, all kinds of vulgar things," they said.

Former staff have made a range of claims about student behaviour at Warrnambool College.(ABC News: Mark Leonardi)

The ABC understands every classroom at Warrnambool College has a phone which is used to call assistant principals for help.

"It's pretty odd that you have to have a phone in every classroom to start with," a former staff member said.

"This is our process? Every single teacher is needing to call for help?"

Another staff member told the ABC they were "glad" they could call for backup, but questioned whether further measures needed to be taken.

"I just question whether that's enough or do we need to have security or on-campus police?" they said.

Nightmares about being in the classroom, inability to sleep, frequent headaches and crying in the car before work were among some of the mental health impacts current and former staff members described.

Staff members have reported crying in their cars prior to starting work.(ABC News: Maren Preuss)

A staff member said an emergency teacher quit the school because "she was so traumatised" from students filming videos of her and posting them to social media. 

A former teacher said while she was working at the school, another staff member said they "felt so unsafe, they were scared they had nowhere to go to lock [themselves]" away from students.

Another teacher said they had to "psych themself up" in their car each morning just to enter the school grounds.

"Prolonged exposure to a hostile environment leads to burnout, and you have to question why are there so many vacancies at that school, and perhaps in the state system in general at the moment," they said.

"I think I was burned out and I was exhausted and I was second-guessing myself as a teacher because I wasn't teaching anymore — it was more behaviour management."

Another staff member said they love being a teacher at Warrnambool College but there needs to be an acknowledgement that schools are workplaces.

"If you work at McDonald's, you've got greater safety around you and protection ... there's signs that say we don't tolerate abuse or whatever, and we don't have that in schools," they said.

A former staff member said a lack of consequences robbed children of the opportunity to learn how to exist in social contexts once they left school.

"I think tolerating these behaviours and not taking a stance on it [is] a really poor example for other students, and it further fosters a culture of disrespect and harassment," they said.

They highlighted an increase in misogynistic and sexist behaviour among male students as particularly worrying.

"If you look at domestic violence in general in society and what's been going on in Ballarat in particular, the fact that violence towards women is rife, we're seeing this really early on in our school setting and that's where we need to be educating," they said.

It is alleged students used to hang over toilet cubicle doors to film others going to the bathroom so students would "hold on" until they could get to a toilet block at the other side of the school.

"Sometimes they'd be scared to even go to those toilets because groups of students would just be walking around instead of being in class, that's when students would be bashed and things like that," a staff member said. 

There are concerns about the impacts of the behaviour of disruptive students.(ABC News: Niki Burnside)

The ABC understands the toilet facilities have been upgraded to ensure cubicle doors are floor to ceiling. 

Staff said the constant interruptions to lessons hindered academic progress because the environment wasn't conducive to learning.

They also worried that students witnessing the behaviour had become desensitised to it. 

"It has to be impacting students emotionally and psychologically," a former staff member said.

"Even if they're not aware of it and can't label it, they're seeing that's the norm — and it's not the norm.

"I thought it was the norm until I changed schools."

A staff member said a concerning precedent was set when bullying behaviour and intimidation tactics went unpunished.

"When you teach students, you're trying to teach them about their rights, and that they do have a voice," the staff member said.

"But then it's really contradictory because they're seeing that we don't have rights and we don't have a voice."

All current and former staff whom the ABC spoke to said they believed the issues went beyond Warrnambool College.

A teacher said Warrnambool College had become an example of a larger issue because teachers at the school were encouraged to report every incident to Edu-Safe, an online portal for staff at state-funded schools to report occupational health and safety incidents.

But they said other schools weren't necessarily reporting every incident.

Former and current Warrnambool College staff said the Victorian Education Department pushing back against WorkSafe's order demonstrated where teacher wellbeing fell on its list of priorities.

The Victorian Department of Education is challenging the WorkSafe order.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

The ABC understands the Victorian Education Department believes an onsite mental health support worker for teachers would set a precedent for all state schools, which the department could not afford.

"Basically what this department is saying [is that] every state school is an unsafe work environment — I mean, how terrible is that?" a staff member said. 

Another staff member said it is "disgusting" that the education department isn't prepared to properly fund schools in general in terms of staff wellbeing and student wellbeing.

The ABC approached Warrnambool College and the state education department for comment.

The department did not respond to direct questions regarding specific allegations raised by the former and current staff members.

“It is inappropriate for us to comment on this case as it is currently before VCAT," a Victorian education department spokesperson said.

The current Victorian budget includes $63.8 million for mental health and wellbeing support for school staff.

The ABC understands the education department has asked Warrnambool College not to speak to the media on the matter.