A former Sydney student has been awarded $1.2m in compensation after he was bashed by 12 students in what’s been described as an ‘appalling’ assault.
The student, who can’t be named as he was only 14 at the time of the 2017 assault, had attended Fairvale High School in Sydney’s west.
He had been waiting for a bus on October 16, 2017, when he was told another student – referred to as XY in a published Supreme Court judgment – wanted to speak with him.
After expressing he didn’t want to talk with the other student, he had attempted to seek help from inside the school between 3.26pm and 4pm, however there was no one inside.
Going back to the bus stop, the young boy was led to a park where he was set upon by 12 students.
Now 21, the student sued the state of NSW through his mother over claims the school failed in their duty of care by not monitoring students at the bus stop after hours.
His mother had tried to call the school twice after her son contacted her to say he was about to be ‘bashed’, but she was twice taken to an answering machine, according to the Supreme Court judgment.
Footage from the students’ phones show the boy being spear tackled from behind before he was kicked, punched, and had his head and other body parts stomped on while he was on the ground.
A former Sydney student has been awarded $1.2m in compensation after he was bashed by 12 students in what’s been described as an ‘appalling’ assault
The footage was later uploaded to Instagram, with court documents describing it as ‘very distressing viewing’.
‘(The student) is lying limp on the ground screaming. One of the students is recorded as saying ‘f***ing oath lad, eshay’ while the assault continues to escalate,’ the published judgment states.
Photos of the student following the assault show his ear had been bleeding, with an area ‘between the back of his ear to his hairline’ red with what ‘appears as though he may have been trodden on as it looks like marks from the sole of a shoe’.
He had to undergo an ear operation and suffered other injuries as well as psychological damage following the assault.
The student had previously been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2012, however the published judgment states his ‘level of ASD worsened’ following the assault, leading to a ‘decreased quality of life’.
‘He was unable to return to school. Even though he was transferred to another school, (the student) was no longer able to catch the bus on his own,’ the published judgment states.
Justice Ian Harrison said the student ‘may have been able to live independently prior to the assault but he will find it difficult to do so now without supervision’ following the assault, which Justice Harrison said was ‘appalling’.
Justice Harrison found there were no teachers on bus duty who could have intervened in the assault, while the instigator of the assault – XY – had also recently returned from a suspension
Justice Harrison found there were no teachers on bus duty who could have intervened in the assault, while the instigator of the assault – XY – had also recently returned from a suspension.
‘The school breached its duty of care by failing to conduct a proper risk assessment of the instigating student before he was allowed to return to the school from a suspension for prior violence,’ the published judgment states.
‘There were no teachers on bus duty to act as a deterrent to misbehaviour or intervene when (the student) was led away from the school’s vicinity.
‘The school’s administration office was closed such that (the student) could not seek refuge with staff when he attempted to.
‘Any one or a combination of these omissions established factual causation as they enabled the assault on (the student) to proceed in the manner in which it did and were a necessary condition to the assault occurring.
‘The severity and multitude of the breaches justify a finding of legal causation. They were inconsistent with a primary duty of the school: to keep its students safe.’
Justice Harrison awarded the student $1.2m in compensation for non-economic loss, future economic loss, past out-of-pocket expenses, future medical expenses, past attendant care, future attendant care, and cost of future management of funds.