A 13-year-old girl who along with another teenager was accused of attempting to murder a teacher at Willetton Senior High School in Perth has pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge.
The girl, who cannot be identified because of her age, had been due to stand trial in the Perth Children's Court today, but at the start of proceedings she admitted her guilt to a charge of "doing an act that resulted in bodily harm" to the female teacher.
The attempted murder charge was then discontinued.
The court heard that on the day of the crime, the two girls had a conversation on the social media app Discord, in which the other student said she had acquired a knife.
The two students then met up and rode to school where the 13-year-old took possession of the weapon to hide it, before handing it back to the other girl at recess.
That student, who is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to the attempted murder charge, then used the knife to attack the teacher in a room at the school around 11.00am.
Because the teacher moved just before the attack, she ended up only suffering a one-centimetre wound near her left armpit.
Girl a 'high-achieving student'
State prosecutor Sean Stocks said the 13-year-old girl's criminal responsibility arose from her aiding the other student to commit the attack.
"Her culpability arises from her concealing the knife in her bag that morning at school and then returning it to [the other student]," he said.
The lawyer for the 13-year-old, Simon Watters, said the offence was out of character for his client, who otherwise was a high-achieving student and who had recorded marks of 90 per cent and 80 per cent in some subjects.
He said the explanation given by the girl as to how she got involved was that "[the other girl] didn't have a lot of friends and she felt if she wasn't her friend, she would have no friends".
The President of the Children's Court, Hylton Quail, ordered two reports, including a psychological report, be prepared on the girl in preparation for her sentencing next month.
Judge Quail told the girl he wanted to learn more about her "to find out what motivated you to get involved in such a serious offence".
The girl's bail was renewed until the sentencing hearing.
