Adelaide mother reveals why she stormed classroom, threatened daughter’s alleged bullies

The mother spoke to 7News about her "tipping point". Photo / 7News

• An Australian mother is under investigation after threatening a girl at St Paul’s College.
• The incident, captured on video, involved the mother threatening to slit the girl’s throat.
• South Australia Police are investigating and the school is providing support to affected students.

Warning: This article discusses suicide and may be upsetting to some readers.

An Australian mother has revealed why she burst into a classroom full of 12-year-olds and threatened to slit the throat of a girl who was allegedly bullying her daughter.

The video of the incandescent Adelaide mum went viral this week, showing her obscene and threatening tirade inside a classroom at St Paul’s College in Adelaide on Monday afternoon.

The school is a co-educational Catholic college in the city’s northeast with an estimated 1000 students from Years 0-12.

As two men, one reportedly her husband, held her back, the woman unleashed at one pupil.

The mum's obscene tirade was caught on video. Photo / 7News

“You ever f****** mess with my daughter again I’ll slit your f****** throat,” she yelled.

“You want to f****** go bitch? You want to f****** go? You ever f****** talk to my daughter again.”

As her husband attempted to pull her away, she directly threatened the girl.

“I’m your f****** nightmare bitch… I’ll slit your f****** throat. I’ll be waiting for you."

As she was dragged away she turned on another pupil, telling them: “And that smart little f*** over there, yeah, you know you’re just jealous because you’re a **** ****.”

The woman continued with her tirade as she was led away. Photo / 7News

‘Tipping point’

The woman told 7News that her daughter had suffered a lengthy campaign of bullying and she had tried to raise the issue with the school, “begging” them to help.

“I don’t want my daughter to be another statistic. I don’t want to have to bury my child,” she said.

“She was crying, she was devastated that this child told her to go and hang herself.”

“That is a breaking point for any parent … I went into survival mode, and protective mode. I did let loose, unfortunately (it) was a side, I don’t show very often. But that was a tipping point for that day.”

She said her daughter had been driven to self-harm by a 12-month period of bullying and she and her husband had been trying to get the school to intervene.

They had driven the girl to school to shield her from the abuse.

“I did everything in my power as a parent,” she claimed.

“The school has been negligent on their behalf... They have ignored all aspects about what we stated about the bullying with our daughter.

“I have stated time and time again to the school that we are begging. We begged for help. We begged.”

She said she didn’t want her daughter to be “another statistic” but apologised for her actions, which she said were out of character.

“What everybody has seen of me is not who I am as a mother or as a person,” she claimed.

A spokesperson for South Australia Police confirmed to local media earlier this week that they were looking into the fiery clash.

“Police will be working closely with the school during the investigation. Thankfully the student involved was not physically injured.”

St Paul’s College principal Patrick Harmer told the Adelaide Advertiser that students were being provided with support.

“The safety and wellbeing of our students is of the utmost importance, and we are providing support to students who may have witnessed the incident,” he said.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said on Wednesday the mother’s actions were “indefensible”.

“I don’t know what the circumstances were that led the parent to say those things, but whatever they were, they do not condone or justify those remarks in any circumstance whatsoever,” he said.

“How do you possibly rationalise that behaviour, how does anyone in their own mind justify or rationalise that behaviour?”

The distressing scene came just weeks after the government in South Australia introduced legislation that empowers schools to ban parents from school grounds if they pose a threat.

The Education and Children’s Services (Barring Notices and Other Protections) Amendment Bill 2024 sees the maximum fine rise to A$7500 ($8300) and allows schools to ban parents for up to six months.