Minister apologises for communication delay of alleged school knife attack
Posted , updated
ACT police were called to Lanyon High School in Canberra's south just after 10am on Thursday. (ABC News: Stuart Carnegie)
In short:
A Canberra school student has appeared in the ACT Children's Court over an alleged knife attack on school grounds on Thursday.
The teenage boy is accused of wounding a fellow student's hand, as well as punching him in the head.
The ACT government says the system that would usually be used to send messages to parents was offline at the time, in order to fix a vulnerability affecting websites around the world.
A global internet flaw is being blamed for delayed communication to parents after a student was attacked at a south Canberra school.
A teenage boy faced the ACT Children's Court today, charged over an incident at Lanyon High School on Thursday morning.
Police said the boy allegedly attacked a fellow Lanyon High School student with a knife, resulting in a wound to the other boy's hand.
The teenager is also accused of punching the other student, including in the head, before, "pulling out a knife between 20-30 centimetres in length and threatening [him]".
"The [accused] then allegedly lunged toward the other boy, stabbing him in the hand. The other boy ran away but the knife was thrown at his head while he fled,"
police said.
A Lanyon High School student was taken to hospital on Thursday after he was allegedly attacked by a fellow student. (ABC News: Stuart Carnegie)
Police said the alleged offender ran from the scene but presented to City Police Station on Thursday night where he was arrested.
He is facing several charges including intentionally wounding, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possessing an offensive weapon with intent, and assaulting a frontline worker.
He did not apply for bail but the court heard a bail application would be made on Tuesday.
The matter is due back in court next month.
The other boy was taken to hospital for his injuries.
ACT Education Minister apologises
ACT Education Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has apologised over delayed communications. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)
The incident at Lanyon High School coincided with the ACT government's response to cyber security vulnerabilities that were identified in many government websites.
"It was really unfortunate that this incident coincided with the PHP cyber security response yesterday, which meant the school's administration system was offline for a period of time and unfortunately the messaging system wasn't available," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"So there was a slight delay in getting messaging out to the whole school community and I really apologise to any parents who experienced additional distress as a result of that."
Ms Stephen-Smith said the message eventually went through and the school also sent an email to all families before 3pm.
But in that time, some students independently contacted their families and arranged to be collected from school.
Ms Stephen-Smith said supports were being made available to students and staff as a result of the incident.
"My thoughts are obviously with the student who was injured and their family and recognising school should be a safe place for everyone," she said.
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