Parents concerned about a group of students at Rossmoyne Senior High School wrote a letter to WA Education Minister Tony Buti airing fears they were trying to radicalise other students.
The group they were concerned about allegedly included the teenage boy shot dead by police in Perth on Saturday night in a confronting scene WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said had “all the hallmarks of a terrorist incident”.
Police at the scene of a knife attack in Willetton on Saturday night.Credit: Nine News
On Monday, Premier Roger Cook confirmed Buti had referred the parents’ letter to the Department of Education for action, but it remains unclear what action was taken.
It’s also unclear why the issue was left in the hands of the education department.
Education Department Director General Lisa Rodgers said since 2022 the student had been on an individual management plan which outlined rules for his behaviour, monitored his attendance and online engagement, included routine check-ins to authorities and saw him provided with extensive psychological support.
The Minister did not make himself available for comment.
Experts said teachers, already facing increased workloads and mental health concerns in schools, had limited support to deal with issues around radicalisation – but there was a growing expectation they should be able to.
Perth Extremism Research Network launched a new resource in January, aimed at tackling growing extremism and disinformation in the WA community through education.
Director Ben Rich said teachers were massively overworked and under-supported in the field.
“The supports are not matching the expectations placed on teachers to deal with the problems young people face online,” he said.
Perth Extremism Research Network director Ben Rich.
“I feel this as a university lecturer, but to a lesser degree as I don’t have the same duty of care.”
He said the generation now going through school was the first to grow up living much of their lives on social media.
“There is more anxiety in the younger generations due to online influences, and extremists pick up on that – they gain more power when they home in on these anxieties or insecurities and the more performative they are, the more popular they get,” he said, citing influencer and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate as a prime example.
“Some form of curriculum integration would be fantastic, to teach children to spot radical ideas online, about social cohesion and why these ideas are wrong.”
Technology requirements in schools also make it harder to monitor students in the classroom and at home, Rich said, making education even more vital.
The 16-year-old Rossmoyne student shot dead at the weekend was Caucasian and had been converted to an extremist version of Islam online.
It was revealed he had been part of a national de-radicalisation program for two years, alongside five others under 18 and four adults across WA.
Members of Perth’s Muslim community raised red flags about the boy with police.
Cook said the 16-year-old was part of the Countering Violent Extremism program, involving psychologists, the Department of Education, and faith leaders.
“We were obviously well aware of the thoughts that he was harbouring; he was an active participant in that program since he was 14, so two years ago,” Cook said.
“It’s a program to help individuals who are expressing ideologies that are of concern in our community, but they may not be committing any crimes.”
On the Department of Education’s website states teachers and support staff are “skilled in identifying changes in the behaviour of all at-risk students, assessing potential concerns and providing appropriate support when needed.”
Tasmanian crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie told Nine’s Today program on Monday she was “terribly concerned” about what happened, as well as the rise of social media radicalisation in schools.
She said it was time to talk about putting fully qualified psychiatrists or psychologists in schools and “maybe looking at reducing the chaplains program because I’m not sure that is helpful either”.
However, Principals Federation WA president Bevan Ripp didn’t agree.
“Chaplains are very important and do an enormous job in schools, I would hate for them to be defunded,” he said.
Ripp said the issue of radicalisation in schools had not been brought to his attention, and cases similar to that of the 16-year-old Willetton attacker were seemingly rare in WA.
Imam Syed Wadood Janud said, on behalf of Perth’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community, he wanted to condemn the incident “in the harshest of terms possible”.
“It has come as a deep shock to us. It is concerning to us, we are worried,” he said.
Former Perth Imam Kamran Tahir, now based in Adelaide, said better education on the Islamic faith was also needed to help contradict the radical ideologies often discussed online.
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