West Australian Education Minister Tony Buti has addressed the police shooting death of a 16-year-old student from a prestigious public school in Perth’s south for the first time, distancing the teen’s stabbing attack from a letter penned by parents at the school raising concerns about radicalisation.
Speaking to ABC Perth on Tuesday morning, Buti confirmed he had received a letter from parents at Rossmoyne Senior High School, but clarified it was a mother and father who were concerned their child was being radicalised at school.
The 16-year-old schoolboy was shot dead by police during a confronting scene WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said had “all the hallmarks of a terrorist incident”.
The letter, Buti said, had nothing to do with the boy who died, and the two should be treated as separate issues.
“The letter itself did not identify a student. The issue was about radicalisation, the letter did not express concern of community safety, more concern about their child being radicalised,” he said.
“[Their concern was not] about the behaviour of the now-deceased former student.”
Police Minister Paul Papalia has attempted to dispel fears the 16-year-old had recruited other students to extremism.
“[WA Police] were confident on Sunday morning and they remain confident that he acted alone,” he said.
When pressed on whether the teenager had attempted to recruit anyone, Papalia said there was a thorough investigation under way, but it remained the case there was no threat to the community.
Papalia said he was not aware of any other Rossmoyne students involved in the same countering violent extremism program that the teenager was involved in.
When asked whether the other WA juveniles in that program had been spoken to since Sunday’s incident he said engagement was a constant process and included responding to “other events” but would not reveal further details.
Premier Roger Cook said it was important to keep a “good line of sight” on the beliefs, incentives and the motivations of some students who were falling prey radicalised to online content.
Buti has said now was the time to “bring the temperature down”.
But his comments come after WA Police received reports of online threats made about Rossmoyne on Tuesday morning.
Posts on social media revealed parents at the school were concerned about the threats, believed to have been made by another student.
“A second Rossmoyne student has threatened violence against the school tomorrow. I’m posting this to warn other parents,” an anonymous member of a local Facebook page wrote.
“The police have been informed and they have advised they have had multiple reports of the information.”
But a police spokeswoman said the threats were the result of a hacking incident, and that they were “vexatious and were not made by the ‘sender’.”
“Police do not have any concerns for the safety of the students, teachers and the broader community, and WA Police continue to work with the Department of Education to identify the source of the messages,” she said.
Buti said the school had sent a message to parents confirming the threats had not originated from any student and that parents should still send their children to school.
On a separate issue, Buti also addressed the fact the 16-year-old who died had brought a home-made explosive to school several years prior.
“Obviously, it’s something that we don’t condone but the reports that there was major damage done to the [toilet] block is untrue,” he said.
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch, speaking on 6PR, also addressed vision of the teenager throwing a “home-made bomb” into a school toilet block.
“The incident in the school toilets didn’t blow up the toilet just to be very clear,” he said.
“Police did investigate, we did take action. Remember, we’re talking about a 14-year-old and not just him, but others that were involved as school kids at the time, and it did cause a referral into a counter violent extremism program ... and he has been on that for two years.”
Early Childhood Education Minister Anne Aly says de-radicalisation programs worked for the majority of young people.
“I think it’s important to point out that these programs are by and large successful,” Aly said. “Unfortunately, as is the nature of things, we only hear about them when something goes wrong.
“In fact, I would say ... many of the people in Perth wouldn’t even know that these programs exist or that people are participating in these programs.”
Other students at Rossmoyne have since come forward in the days after the 16-year-old was shot, calling for the community to stop assuming he was a bad person, and instead asking them to focus on the issue of mental health.
“He had a lot of friends and he was well known, and he was just a very kind and genuine person, and I wouldn’t have thought he would do something like this,” one student said.
“He was a bit set back, but he was just a calm, kind person.”
A parent at the school also described him as a “kindhearted and helpful child” but said he had “gone mad” because of what he was exposed to online.
with Hamish Hastie
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