Alice Springs’ Yipirinya primary school bus stolen by students in wild chase

An elementary school student in a troubled outback town leads their principal on a wild chase after stealing a bus.

The terrifying footage captured in August shows the Yipirinya school bus hurtling through the gate and entering the streets of Alice Springs at 9pm with teachers in hot pursuit.

There were 10 students on board with the driver aged 12 and the oldest in the vehicle 14.

The bus moves through the streets as teachers flash their headlights and horn as they yell to stop.

“You little sh*** … stop!” shouts a teacher in frustration.

At several points, the bus swerves to the wrong side of the road, goes off the road and screeches its tires.

The chase eventually ends with kids jumping out as the bus still drives outside an Indigenous camp as the group rumbles fences and runs in opposite directions to escape being caught.

The children returned to school the next day after the bus was written off and no one was charged.

The chase ended when the schoolchildren jumped out of the vehicle as it continues to drive outside an Indigenous camp, as the children race over fences and run in opposite directions to escape being caught (Photo: Children fleeing the bus after it comes to a stop has come)

Yipirinya school principal Gavin Morris said students like him are “in absolute crisis.”

“We have a growing number of students at Yipirinya who come to school with ankle bracelets, who have bail conditions attached to the upcoming trial, some of them are very, very young,” he said. The Australian.

Mr Morris said the school is in regular contact with local magistrates so that bail conditions can be varied for children as young as 12 to take part in after-school programmes.

Alice Springs crime rates have made headlines in recent months as domestic violence, property crime and alcohol-related assaults have skyrocketed, leading to stricter alcohol laws being introduced across the Northern Territory.

The ‘crisis’ led to political pledges totaling nearly $300 million in funding in key areas of the Northern Territory.

However, Yipirinya’s director says the focus should be on helping these children, who continue to play cat and mouse with the police late into the night because some feel safer on the street than at home.

Yipirinya school principal Gavin Morris (pictured) said students like him are “in absolute crisis,” telling stories of children returning to school in handcuffs or anklets

Mr Morris cited an example of a recent incident where a young girl was raped and after witnessing the crime, her younger brother came to school with signs of self-harm as he had attempted to take his own life.

The director also recalled that earlier this year, four children were escorted to school in handcuffs by police at 8:30 am because they did not want to go home and had therefore been roaming the streets all night.

“For the teenage girls who don’t go home because they’re afraid their uncles will come in, these are the girls who walk around Alice Springs unsupervised because they don’t feel safe going home,” Mr Morris said.

The director, who has a PhD in Aboriginal trauma and lectures at Charles Darwin University, says he wants the students to feel safe and included.

“Kids come to me saying family life is so bad they’d rather be in Owen Springs[juvenile detention center]and be in jail where they feel safer,” he said.

Earlier this month, Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (pictured) burst into tears as she discussed the current crime spree in her hometown of Alice Springs.

Earlier this month, Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price burst into tears as she discussed the current crime spree in her hometown of Alice Springs.

The senator said she is afraid to go shopping in the city because of attacks on women, and said children are regularly attacked when they are alone.

Speaking to Peta Credlin on Sky News, Senator Price said she warned her son, 22, to be careful when picking up his younger brother from a shift at the cinema because “young people are deliberately ramming cars.”

“There’s been no hold-ups in terms of that activity going on every night,” she said.