Illawarra public schools are dealing with shocking acts of violence, student drug use and vandalism on a weekly basis.
NSW education department documents reveal 55 disturbing incidents in Illawarra and South East region schools in the first half of this year - a rate of more than two a week.
The serious incident files expose numerous acts of violence resulting in serious injury, as students barged, punched and kicked teachers, hit other children over the head with sporting equipment or threatened each other with knives, chisels, lit cigarettes, scissors and smashed glass from broken school windows.
Five shocking school incidents exposed
At one high school in June a year 8 boy choked another boy until the teen lost consciousness, while, at another school, a year 7 boy threw another against a wall, breaking his collarbone.
Boys were the main aggressors in more than half the cases and teachers or school staff were listed as victims in almost a third of reported cases.
Technology played a part in several incidents as students used mobile phones to film violence, make death threats or distribute explicit photos.
In two cases, children were reported for "sexting" or distributing naked photos of other students online.
In February, one school reported a year 9 boy who extorted "a large sum of money" from a year 11 girl by sending her messages saying she and her family would be harmed or vicious rumours would be spread about her if she didn't pay him.
Police were called to 64 per cent of the incidents.
Parents or other adults were reported for violent or threatening behaviour nine times and there were several cases of parents taking discipline into their own hands, storming onto school grounds to confront children and teachers.
At a Wollongong primary school in May, a mother turned up at the start of school to verbally abuse and threaten a year 1 boy. She then grabbed him by the back of the neck and verbally abused another young girl who was nearby.
In February, a father of a kindergarten boy abused school staff for not taking disciplinary action against another kindergarten child. Later, another man related to the case threatened to burn the school down.
Despite these reports, an education spokesperson said schools remain among the safest places for children and young people. The spokesperson said 91 per cent of NSW public schools did not report a single serious incident and, of schools which made reports, about 7 per cent reported only one incident.
The department's Illawarra and south east region includes schools covered by the Far South Coast and Goulburn police commands, however 60 per cent of reported incidents took place in schools in the Wollongong, Lake Illawarra and Shoalhaven commands.