The Police have recently reported that multiple schools are being investigated following allegations that students are preaching radical Islam in the schoolyard.

Epping Boys High School in Sydney’s north west (the School) has been identified as one of the schools facing issues of radicalisation among the student body. The School’s Principal, Mr Tim O’Brien, said in a statement on its website that counselling was being offered to students and emphasised that ‘student safety, well being and support is our absolute highest priority at all times’.

The school is cooperating with both the Department of Education and a range of law enforcement agencies as they work to resolve the issues at hand.

Radicalisation in schools: a growing problem?

The School, like many other Sydney schools, allows students to hold prayer meetings during lunch breaks. The members of these prayer groups must have parental consent to attend. ABC News reports that this latest investigation into the School relates to a Year 12 student, with parents reporting that complaints had been made to the School authorities a month ago about potential radicalisation. A mother at the school stated: ‘We really had [a] problem with [a] student in the school and we talked [to] the principal and everybody, but now everything is fine’.

Media reports state that police are investigating potential links to Maywand Osman, a former pupil at the School who has been targeted in counter-terrorism raids, and to Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai, who was convicted last year following his threat to slit the throat of an ASIO officer.

NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Murdoch told the press on Friday that anti-terrorist authorities are working in a highly dynamic, changing environment which has changed ‘the whole ball game’ of identifying and managing security threats to Australia. Police are now seeing involvement from much younger people, which alters how law enforcement agencies can operate.

This issue is not unique to NSW schools, with Victorian principals recently telling Fairfax News that they ‘are grappling with the growing radicalisation of students and parents, with one government school revealing earlier this year that two of their students had parents who were fighting for Islamic State in Syria’.

Extremist groups such as ISIS have sophisticated recruitment tactics designed to target children, with networks of schools designed for English speakers and a significant online presence that targets vulnerable individuals. There have been a number of high profile cases in Western nations where minors have run away from home and travelled to the Middle East to join terrorist groups such as ISIS.

Recently, a 16 year old student at East Boys High School in Sydney’s south-west attempted to flee to Syria, but was intercepted by his father in Turkey and brought home. Two more youths were prevented from travelling to Syria by members of the community or by family members, and are currently receiving counselling.

Possible new laws for schools?

Earlier this year the Sydney Morning Herald reported that new laws had been introduced in the United Kingdom (UK) making it mandatory for schools there to play a key role in preventing students from being ‘drawn into terrorism’.

While some schools have begun to take action by providing community workshops and seminars, others are trialling software that alerts teachers to potentially extremist online activity. ‘Prevent’ coordinators have also been dispatched to help schools understand and comply with their new obligations under the law.

The Role of the Community

Given that radicalisation can happen over the internet or during lunch breaks, it can be difficult to identify and monitor at-risk students.

Community leaders have spoken of the need for vigilance throughout the general public, and used the example of a travel agent who contacted a boy’s father following an attempt to book a one-way ticket to the Middle East. Teachers can play a significant role in identifying students at risk of being radicalised, through discussing concerns with other members of staff and potentially raising the issue with the student’s family. When students have been radicalised, counter-terrorism researcher Dr Anne Aly highlights the fact that de-radicalisation is often a long and difficult process.

Mr Murdoch stressed the point that Epping Boys High School’s situation is not unique, and that the police ‘have mechanisms in place, in conjunction with the education department, to deal with the problem’.

Given the complexity of these issues, schools should not attempt to deal with students demonstrating radicalisation in isolation. Concerns should be reported to the police, given the seriousness of the situation and the limited capacity of individual schools to evaluate risks and provide support in these circumstances.

In NSW, in addition to the police audit, the State Government is working in conjunction with community leaders and experts to develop programs that will target radicalisation in schools.  As a first step to help schools, The Daily Telegraph has reported that an audit of prayer groups in NSW government schools will take place and it will include all religious prayer groups, not just Islamic ones. In addition:

• the NSW Department of Education and the NSW Police have issued a memo to Principals outlining their obligations to report all cases of extremism; and
• the Department of Education will be provided with further training by the Police, which is currently in development.

While these anti-radicalisation measures appear to only apply to government schools at this stage, and further details are yet to be confirmed, non-government schools may be guided by the initiatives of the Police and Department of Education.