A growing association between school suspensions and youth crime has become alarming within the Aboriginal community.
“Neglecting and excluding children from school, who already struggle with education, gives them a one-way trip to a life of crime when you destroy their opportunities,” says Tyran Liddiard, Senior Officer of Indigenous Promotion at the NSW Department of Education.
Many other experts agree with these claims, with Aboriginal children over-representing students suspended, as well as incarcerated youth.
The NSW Department of Education found that 14.4% of Aboriginal students have received a long-form suspension (4-20 days), compared to 4% of non-indigenous students. School suspensions increased by 16% from 2021-2022 and continue to rise, affecting disadvantaged youth the most.
“School suspension is a key element of what is known as the ‘school to prison pipeline’, which sees marginalised and excluded young people at an increased risk of juvenile and, eventually, adult incarceration” a report from The Australian Institute of Criminology claims.
“Long-form exclusions from school have a negative impact on the youth, they don’t come back better,” Liddiard says.
Problems like Aboriginal education and youth crime are some of the many issues that have put pressure on institutions and departments to change ‘outdated’ systems such as teaching.
“I have seen first-hand that when these kids are suspended they have more time to get into trouble on the streets, it is backward thinking to suspend them. It’s clear to me that when Aboriginal children are mentored and taught by Aboriginal teachers, their attention increases and the behavioural issues disappear,” Liddiard says.
“They need full support, as much of the day as possible. Neglecting school only reduces opportunities they need to have later in life so that they don’t go down a road of crime”
Programs have been established to mentor Indigenous youth and allow them to find opportunities that help them avoid a life of crime. One of those is The Aboriginal Learning and Engagement Centre, which was established in 2019 by the NSW Liberal government, and aims to increase the proportion of Aboriginal students attaining their HSC by 50%. The program also helps with mentoring and goal-setting of Indigenous students, integrating Aboriginal culture into school, as well as helping learning centres retain students.
“Programs like this need to exist in order to tailor-make schooling for Indigenous youth to avoid these problems and move us forward as a community,” Liddiard says.
“For so long the school system has been failing a lot of youth not just Indigenous and this is why we have set up programs like this. It allows us to purposefully allocate resources to people who need extra attention.”
A youth crime ‘wave’ seen in Alice Springs, Queensland and western Sydney has been widely discussed by the media, leaving some to believe that the issue is a result of policy failure.
“We all see on the news, what seems to be a pandemic of youth crime, but not many people are prepared to do anything about it. Indigenous youth crime doesn’t just happen, it’s systemic and it starts with education,” Liddiard says.
