3 months ago
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A man has been charged after a principal was stabbed at a school in Melbourne’s south-east.
Keysborough Secondary College principal Aaron Sykes is recovering at home a day after the violent incident plunged the state high school into lockdown.
Keysborough Secondary College principal was stabbed on Tuesday.Credit: Nine
A 43-year-old Edithvale man will face Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning, charged with multiple offences including unlawful assault and intentionally causing injury.
Police allege the pair are known to one another.
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Students were forced to hide under their desks at the college’s Acacia campus, on Isaac Road at Keysborough, shortly before the school day ended on Tuesday.
Advanced life support and mobile intensive care paramedics arrived at the college within five minutes, and transported the two men to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
In a letter to families, Acacia Campus principal Natalie Fode said Sykes was “recovering well and in good spirits given the circumstances”.
“The alleged perpetrator is with police and will not at any stage be back on school grounds,” Fode wrote in the letter.
“Any form of violence within our school is entirely unacceptable. We are proud of the safe and supportive culture that is the norm at our school.
“I want to assure you that the health and safety of our students and staff is always our highest priority.”
A staff briefing was held on Thursday morning and wellbeing staff are on hand to support students and teachers.
The Department of Education said on Tuesday that no students or children were involved.
“We are grateful to staff at Keysborough Secondary College who acted quickly to contact emergency services during this distressing incident,” a department spokeswoman said.
Sykes was previously principal at Melba College, which The Age recognised with a Schools That Excel prize in 2021 after the state school in Croydon lifted its median study score under his leadership.
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