The Education Directorate says it cannot discuss the specifics of an "incident of conflict" between students at a Canberra public school because it is now an ACT Policing matter.
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The directorate released a statement late on Thursday in response to questions from The Canberra Times.
"A social media post on Facebook last night [Wednesday] revealed an incident of conflict between students at an ACT public school," it read.
"The incident occurred last year and is known to the school, and the directorate and school have been working with the students and their families to help resolve the conflict.
"It is very disappointing to have this Facebook post appear, particularly when it involves and impacts our young people.
"Behaviour that is disrespectful and harmful to others should not be tolerated in our community and is unacceptable in our schools. It is also important to remember that students and families themselves play an important role in promoting respectful relationships and we encourage families to talk about and demonstrate expected behaviours at home as well as at school."
A video was posted online on a popular Canberra Facebook page on Wednesday night purporting to show one girl assaulting another girl at a Canberra school.
The person who posted the video said she was the mother of the alleged victim of the assault and had taken the extreme measure of publicly releasing the footage because she had no confidence in the way the school was dealing with it and other instances of bullying against her daughter.
Comments to the post urged the women to report the matter to police.
The video and accompanying comments were later removed from the page by its moderator.
The directorate was asked about the veracity of the video and whether or not complaints of bullying and assault in the school were being properly addressed.
It later released a statement declining to address any specific concerns or confirm the identity of the school.
"We cannot discuss the specifics of this case as it is an ACT Policing matter. If a parent has specific concerns we encourage them to raise their concerns with their school principal," the statement read.
The directorate not only made reference to families fostering respectful relationships at home but reiterated its schools will deal with behaviour "outside what is tolerated".
"All our public schools pride themselves on fostering a positive culture by working with families to support our students and staff. We take matters of student conflict very seriously and schools work hard to prevent behaviour of this kind. If behaviour steps outside what is tolerated and expected it is appropriately dealt with by our schools," the statement read.
