For students like Lucy, the moment sexual harassment became a legal proceeding felt like a reversal of justice. At her school in Victoria, a boy harassed her repeatedly. His mother's response was not to address her son's behaviour. Instead, she took him to court and obtained an intervention order naming Lucy as the respondent. The order effectively silenced her. She could not go near him, could not discuss what had happened, could not seek help from teachers without risking a breach of the order.
Lucy's experience is no longer an anomaly. From 2018 to 2024, there was a 34% increase in the number of child respondents coming to Victoria Legal Aid for help with intervention orders. The trend reflects a fundamental misuse of civil court tools that were designed for domestic violence.
Intervention orders were mostly designed for adult family violence situations or stalking and harassment. Yet in Victoria, they are increasingly weaponised in schoolyards. New Victoria Legal Aid research shows that school related disputes, such as one-off physical fights and cyber-bullying between schoolmates, are driving an increase in intervention orders against children and young people, with most applications being taken out by parents of the other child.
The stakes for young people facing these orders are severe. Victoria Legal Aid system data shows that 33 per cent of child respondents to intervention orders were aged 10–14 years. These are children whose brains are still developing, yet the legal system treats them as adults. Many intervention orders are made without the young person present at court and without them having the chance to get legal advice, putting them at increased risk of breaching the order, which is a criminal offence.
The educational consequences are particularly troubling. A Victoria Legal Aid file review showed 36 per cent of young peoples' schooling was disrupted by the PSIO, with disruptions including missing some school, changing schools or leaving school altogether. Education is a protective factor in a child's life, and school exclusion is highly linked with contact with the criminal justice system, making young people's situations worse.
The research also reveals what these orders do not do. For disputes between children, mediation or restorative approaches can have ongoing benefits such as understanding root causes and learning conflict resolution skills; however, the PSIO legal response does not address the drivers of the conflict. Many intervention orders are made without the young person present at court and without them having the chance to get legal advice.
Support services are notably absent. The Victoria Legal Aid research found the intervention order system rarely links children and young people in with support services; the Education Justice Initiative, run by the Department of Education, provides support to young people involved with the criminal justice system but not to children responding to PSIOs as these matters are heard in civil jurisdiction.
The courts were meant to provide alternative pathways. Lawmakers envisioned that mediation would be a key part of the approach to managing school related PSIOs, but court-based mediation services are largely inaccessible for children and young people facing intervention order proceedings.
For young people like Lucy, the result is a system that offers no genuine resolution. The court order does not address why the harassment occurred. It does not support the harasser to change behaviour. And for Lucy, it weaponised the legal system against her at the moment she needed protection most. Parents seeking these orders may believe they are protecting their children, but Victoria Legal Aid's evidence suggests the tool often deepens harm for everyone involved, particularly the most vulnerable students caught in school disputes.
The organisation is calling for schools to receive greater support in resolving disputes and for the Department of Education to invest in programs that keep children engaged in school. The alternative, the evidence makes clear, is a legal system that exchanges accountability for isolation.