Police Minister Dan Purdie defends weapon search powers following incidents in Logan and Cairns
The police minister has defended police’s powers to search for weapons and called for more police officers to be deployed across the state following two school stabbings in the first week of the new term.
Police Minister Dan Purdie said the government was working to “break the culture of young people carrying knives”.
“What we’ve done is made Jack’s Law permanent, rolled it out to other locations, and now every police department has access to these little devices,” he said.
Jack’s Law gives police officers the authority to conduct on-the-spot searches for weapons in any public space, including public school campuses.
The minister said the state needed more police officers – more than 1,800 have been on duty in the last two years – but rejected any suggestion that school staff such as principals could be given similar powers.
“We don’t want to start telling principals it’s their job, so we’re giving tougher laws to the police… to make sure we’re keeping the community safe and holding young people accountable,” Purdie said.
“Principals run their schools, and their main priority is to ensure that children are getting an education in schools, and we don’t want to start allocating that position to the principal.”
Officers patrolled a school campus near Logan for a few hours on TuesdayA 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbed his 17-year-old classmate with a “small knife”.
The older child suffered potentially life-threatening injuries but his condition stabilized Tuesday evening.
Police said two boys were involved in a fight before the 17-year-old was injured.
Officers were initially unable to locate the 16-year-old school dropout but later located him in a vehicle on Gowan Road in the neighboring Brisbane suburb of Stretton, where he was arrested.
He was charged with maiming, disfiguring or disabling and unlawful possession of a category M weapon and was due to appear in Richlands Juvenile Court on Wednesday.
The school’s general manager told 4BC that the two students knew each other and maintained that the incident was quickly brought under control.
The school emailed parents to inform them that students would be dismissed approximately an hour earlier than normal due to “an incident on campus.”
“This decision is a measure taken to support the well-being of our students and staff and to allow the university to manage the situation appropriately,” the school said.
While some parents criticized the school for a “lack of timely communication”, others claimed they first saw the news in the media on Tuesday afternoon.
A parent said that they learned about the incident through a phone call from their children.
Late Tuesday, the school notified parents that there remained no risk to other students and said classes would resume Wednesday.
The school also urged parents to avoid “sharing or commenting on speculation or misinformation.”
“We are aware that a significant amount of information is circulating on social media and much of it is inaccurate or unverified,” the school said.
The alleged stabbing occurred a day after a 15-year-old boy was allegedly stabbed at a Cairns school.
The boy was taken to hospital and another boy, also 15, appeared in the Cairns Children’s Court on Tuesday charged with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
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