19 injured in Australian school rampage

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 04/07/08 | Staff

[Amelia]

school in Sydney on Monday, smashing windows, terrorizing students and hitting a teacher over the head, police said. Eighteen students were also slightly hurt.

The five, between the ages of 14 and 16, were arrested after storming into suburban Merrylands High School and would likely be charged with assault and other crimes, Police Detective Inspector Jim Stewart said...

...when he tried to stop the attackers, and 18 students were treated for cuts from broken glass and other minor injuries, Stewart said...Police were questioning the suspects — who were not identified because they are minors — about their reasons for the attack, including whether they were looking for someone in particular.

[Amelia]

Not just in the U.S.A.

[acoulterfan]

Were these like those British Youts?

[basil]

Isn’t Australia a “gun free zone”?

[bobby.223]

yeah, like those ones who wear the diapers on their heads? those ones?

[ClearCase_guy]

I spent a month in Australia a few years ago. Nice place. It was remarkable how little gun violence there was -- it seemed rare to find a newspaper story of someone getting shot in Sydney. It's pretty much gun-free.

Of course, I was appalled at the number of people who were beaten to death with golf clubs, chairs, rocks, sticks, and cricket bats. There seemed to be quite a lot of that going on.

[Uncle Miltie]

"Merrylands High School is a coeducational, comprehensive high school in South-Western Sydney. Our school has an enrolment of 800 students; 62% of students come from language backgrounds other than English and over 50 cultures are represented at our school."

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/respect/schools/merrylands_hs.html

[thegreatestgeneration]

You’re right, it’s not just the USA that has school violence. Except in Australia nobody gets killed during this stuff, because the kids don’t have guns over there.

[Amelia]

Except in Australia nobody gets killed during this stuff, because the kids don’t have guns over there.

Bats can't be lethal?

[naturalman1975]

No, it isn’t - law abiding citizens can own basic firearms quite easily, though we do have universal registration and owning more than just a basic rifle or shotgun starts to get pretty complicated in terms of licencing and storage requirements etc.