A Halls Creek school teacher who was charged and later cleared over revealing abysmal attendance numbers has launched a Go Fund Me page for his defence as new figures reveal a major drop in Kimberley school attendance over the past two years.
On February 22, Brock Burston launched his Go Fund Me page ahead of a Public Service Appeal Board hearing on March 3 that will determine whether Education Department sanctions imposed on him will remain in place.
It is the latest in the years-long battle that has seen Mr Burston pursued by the Department of Education for revealing truancy numbers in an anonymous letter to the Shire of Halls Creek in late 2020.
It comes as new figures disclosed in Parliament on January 14 revealed a drastic drop in the average school attendance across all years of education throughout the Kimberley over the past two years.
The figures were given in answer to a question posed by Mining and Pastoral MLC Neil Thomson with Finance Minster Sue Ellery providing the attendance numbers for Halls Creek, Fitzroy Valley, Wyndham and Derby District high schools alongside East Kimberley College.
The worst of the figures were for Derby District High School which saw a 40 per cent drop in Year 12 attendance from 70.2 per cent in semester one of 2021 to 30.3 per cent in the first semester of 2022.
Halls Creek District High School also saw a fall of nearly 20 per cent in Year 12 attendance from 30 per cent to just 11.9 per cent.
East Kimberley College saw no...
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