Children as young as seven are among dozens of pupils who have attempted suicide, self-harmed in front of classmates and in one case killed themselves, according to highly confidential government documents.
Victorian government reports this month on the schoolyard mental health crisis detail horrific accounts of illness and self-harm facing children from Year 2 to Year 12.
They include the reported death of a Year 12 student and other shocking details including potential hangings or chokings, self harming with a knife and transgender related psychological distress.
The incidents highlight the challenges facing educators and parents and will provoke debate about the causes of high mental illness rates affecting many young people across Australia.
The Andrews government keeps the chronicle of issues secret from parents and school communities but the reporting is used by senior bureaucrats to determine the extent of illness in schools and what processes were followed in each event.
The latest Victorian alert includes a traumatised Year 2 student threatening to stab himself and a Year 3 student trying to strangle himself with a piece of string.
The so-called IRIS Alerts suggest that, with 25 serious cases in the two weeks to August 7, there are likely to be hundreds of reports of mental stress complaints in a single year in Victorian government schools and many more nationally, including in remote communities.
The Andrews government can’t say how often the Department of Education and Training receives reports about mental illness, nor would it say how many internal alerts had been sent out in the past three years to determine whether there is a rising trend of mental health issues.
The NSW government does not collect a central database of mental health issues among students but said the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that between 2011-12 and 2014-15 rates of high or very high psychological distress were stable across most age groups.
Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said as many as one in every seven pupils in primary school and one in four in secondary schools had endured mental health issues.
He said youth suicide was at its worst levels in 10 years and he urged more strident action from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“This is a generation that is really struggling; I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
Dr Carr-Gregg said the high suicide rates and levels of distress suggested that parents needed to do more to sensibly expose children to challenges and urged against so-called helicopter parenting that restricted activities such as walking to school solo and the riding of bikes.
“It speaks to me of a lack of resilience. The bottom line is that I don’t think we are preparing even the little kids or the biggest kids for adversity,’’ he said.
Schools in Victoria and NSW have sophisticated means by which they deal with mental health issues, although the impact of incidents is not confined to just the student suffering an illness. In one case logged by the Victorian Department of Education and Training, a Year 9 student hurt himself with a blade in front of several distressed students, although the cut was considered minor.
Jason Trethowan, the chief executive of national youth mental health initiative headspace, said schools provided a captive and safe environment upon which children could discuss their issues and report their concerns.
He also said the earlier onset of puberty had meant that mental health issues were arising earlier in some children. Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14
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