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The principal of a state school in Melbourne’s west has been stood down after vision emerged of him allegedly dragging a student along the ground.

Victoria’s Education Minister James Merlino has ordered an investigation, saying he is “appalled”.

Steve Warner, the principal of Manor Lakes College, was caught on camera allegedly dragging the primary school student through school grounds.

He left the school without comment after Seven News showed the vision to the Education Minister’s office.

“Let me be clear, I will not tolerate this kind of completely unacceptable behaviour in our schools,” Mr Merlino said.

Parents and students were shocked at the scene, which was filmed on a mobile phone.

Education Department policy says a teacher may take “any reasonable action that is immediately required to restrain a student from acts or behaviour dangerous to the member of the staff, student, or any other person.”

Public defends Principal’s behaviour

While nobody condones this behaviour people have commented that we should not throw stones before knowing the full story.

Comments include:

“If the student is putting other kids and teachers at risk, then 100% the principal has the authority to move the student away from others. Apparently the kid kicked a teacher who is 6 months pregnant in the stomach and was also throwing rocks at the principal’s car.
Maybe we should hear from the principle (who is experienced) before commenting. Bad form 7 News for enticing fear and outrage by not getting all the facts!!!”

There has even been a petition calling for his reinstatement.

The petition circulating said Mr Warner had been “an amazing influence on the school” and improved behaviour across the school.

“The worst outcome of this situation would be for the school to lose him as the principal and leader,” the petition, started by Mark England, reads. As of 10am, 629 people had signed the petition.

Family speak out

The boy’s sister, Bianca Moore, has since spoken out, saying the rumours are all false and he did not kick anyone.

“He suffers from ADHD and anxiety and obviously starting at a new school has upset him, he was having a tantrum,” she told the Daily Mail.

“I believe he was asked to share something to the class as it was their first day he didn’t want to and became upset.”

“Yes, he was misbehaving, but he was not physically abusing any teachers,” another relative said.

“Regardless of his behaviour, he should not have been treated like this.”

The incident is being further investigated.

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  • Don’t think he should have reacted the way he did but sometimes its understandable for people to react in ways we may condemn but totally understand his frustration and anger too. Until we know the full facts of the case lets not condemn either of them.

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  • I don’t really agree with this type of discipline, but its hard to speculate when we dont really know the full story. There is a possibility it could have been handled differently. I wouldn’t want anyone dragging my son like that

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  • There so many kids that need discipline these days if u sit in a classroom and listen to what some say and do you’ll be shocked

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  • When it is so that this child became physical in this situation, it certainly brings the actions of the principal in another perspective. Of course it is the question if his choice of action was the best and if he could have handled the situation differently.
    Good that it is under investigation.

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  • I hope for the boys family that he wasn’t kicking a pregnant teacher because that would be a pretty horrible thing to do. I believe that teachers and principals should be allowed to do what is necessary to protect students and teachers and to be in control of situations before they can escalate. It’s unfortunate that this was filmed on a mobile camera and then broadcast via the news without all the facts – that’s just the way the news/media works now – just running stories which have no actual facts to them and make it so much harder for everyone to get to the facts. I will be interested to hear more about this once the investigation is complete


    • Yes, they talk about that. But it hasn’t been confirmed yet.



      • There should be policies and procedures in place for dealing with situations and if not followed I imagine there will need to be accountability.

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  • Only an official investigation will get the facts and other online comments are just speculation.

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  • So hard to comment complete thoughts without the full story.

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  • So hard to understand as we don’t know the full story.

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  • You do not to this to a child in this day and age!

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  • I’d need to know a lot more before I’d be willing to comment either way.

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  • I don’t know any teachers who would do this to a child without a very good reason.

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  • If he’s really on a board on wheels, that’s not half as bad as it sounded at first.

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  • This is so painful to watch. No, that teacher shouldn’t have done that.

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  • While I don’t condone what he did, we don’t know the facts of the case and quite frankly if the sister wasn’t in the room at the time she shouldn’t be commenting

    Reply

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