One-in-five teachers 'physically attacked' at school

[Jazzy]

A fifth of teachers have been physically assaulted in the last 12 months amid growing concerns over a collapse in classroom discipline, it emerged today.



Some 20 per cent of staff working in schools said they had been attacked by pupils or parents during the 2010/11 academic year, figures show.



A further two-thirds of teachers reported being verbally abused and 18 per cent said they had been subjected to slurs from pupils on social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook.



The conclusions come amid Government claims that the balance of power in schools has swung too far towards pupils in recent years.



This summer, it issued new guidance to schools in an attempt to crackdown on bad behaviour.



Teachers have been told to use force to physically restrain unruly pupils, break-up fights and remove disruptive children from the classroom.



Schools have also been banned from imposing “no touch” policies and heads are warned against automatically suspending teachers accused of using “excessive force” on young people.



Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...e-teachers-physically-attacked-at-school.html



Quesions: Has this ever happened to a teacher in your school? Do you think teachers should be allowed to use physical force?

 

[Chatsie]

I would agree that discipline, both at school and at home has been

eroded over the years. These days, too many kids get too little discipline

and know they can get away with any amount of bad behaviour.



When it comes to using 'force' in schools, I think it depends on just how

much is allowed and permissable and under what circumstances.

 

[Evil Eye]

Physical force shouldn't be used by teachers except in self defence.

If you don't have the authority to get some kid to do what you want, call the police.

 

[Jazzy]

I agree 100% with your post EE!

 

[theimforum]

No physically force should be used on students, give disciplinary actions instead, also inform the student's parents is a better choice.

 

[Chatsie]

So what kind of disciplinary actions are you thinking of IM ?

What punishments are available to schools to use ?



Quite often contacting parents is a waste of time as they have

no control over their kids either.

I think some kids are immune to any kind of discipline.

 

[Rapunzel]

I would agree that discipline, both at school and at home has been

eroded over the years. These days, too many kids get too little discipline

and know they can get away with any amount of bad behaviour.

I totally, totally agree with this!



Interesting post Jazzy!

Funnily enough I just asked a question about school discipline before I saw this post.



Physical force is only used in cases where a child could endanger itself or someone else. Only members of the senior management team who have been trained in child restraint are allowed to remove the offender.



Two trained members of staff will hold a child 'chicken-wing' style so that he/she is restrained, cannot kick or lash out at anyone and can be safely walked or lifted and carried from the scene. The child is then taken to a time-out room where they can vent in private with 1 or 2 members of staff present. The room is filled solely with cushions so that the child can take their temper out on the cushions without causing harm or injury to themselves or others.



Children no longer consider the police to be a deterrent. The police are called whenever a child runs away from school during the day. We have several children on the autistic spectrum who do runners quite regularly. The police are always called in to round them up. The police have no real jurisdiction in schools, when it comes to behaviour management. Schools are expected to deal with it themselves.



Our current school policy is a traffic light system. A 'good' child is on a green card. Misbehaviour will be given a warning and then a second warning will be accompanied by an orange card. A third warning for bad behaviour will see that a child is given a red card and 5 minutes time out.



After the 5 minutes the child is back on the green card and all is forgiven.



Our Head thinks this system works well. I think this system is sh**!



Children who have no respect for teachers or police, will certainly have no respect for a red card either. They will stamp, kick, shout, scream and throw things. They run over tables and chairs and crawl underneath them. I have had pencils, erasers and chairs thrown at me. I having been called all manner of names. The child on time-out will walk around the class room fidgeting with things and moving things and answering back. The other children will giggle which will encourage the child to misbehave further.



Such disruptions can destroy a chunk of any lesson. The teacher concentrates on calming the one child whilst the other 30 children lose out on their learning.



I don't know the solution to this. I agree that children with learning difficulties should be in mainstream schools and not special schools. Yet in a classroom you have high achievers who need to be pushed, to improve even further; you have low ability achievers who need to be encouraged to improve and you have children who don't want to be there or who can't behave and who spoil the lesson for everyone so that no work gets done whilst they (the troublemaker) will get attention (albeit negative attention) from the entire class plus teachers and helpers. This is exactly what the troublemaker seeks.



The obvious solution is removal from the classroom, however by the time the traffic light system has been worked through, the lesson is nearly over and the lesson time has been lost or wasted.

 

[Rapunzel]

No physically force should be used on students, give disciplinary actions instead, also inform the student's parents is a better choice.

The majority of parents of children who underperform or do badly, generally speaking, don't really give a sh** about their kids. Some of them have the most appalling home lives. Some are abused - mentally, physically and/or emotionally. Children shouldn't have to deal with some of the crap their carers dump on them!



Some parents sit home with their fags (cigarettes) and booze (alcohol) and cry because they can't cope with their 5 kids from 5 different fathers, none of whom stayed around. Oh, and btw, they ALWAYS have money for fags and booze! They DON'T always have money to feed their kids!!!



A child who misbehaves to the extent that they are suspended will just spend a few days at home on their playstation/wii/whatever. They might get yelled at or slapped. They might not get fed. They're expected to play their games and be quiet. They miss out on several days lessons and when they go back and all the class have moved on, they find they don't understand the work and the teacher has no time for 1:1 explanations. So they mess about because they're bored and because they don't understand the lesson, and once again the cycle of misbehaviour leading to punishment and suspension is enacted.

 

[Jazzy]

Without a strict punishment system, what you just said Rapunzel is a crock of poop! It's just going to keep happening over and over. It's not fair to the teacher or the other students in that classroom. When I was younger and going to school, the student who caused a problem was immediately taken from the classroom. If that wasn't possible, the teacher put the student in the coat closet and closed the door!

After only one warning, the parents were then called to pick up the student and gave for first offense, a 2 day suspension. If it kept up, the student was then given a month to rethink their attitude. The student came to school but was put into a detension area with at least 4 supervisors watching them. They lost all their ability to mingle with their friends and this system truly did work.

 

[Rapunzel]

Without a strict punishment system, what you just said Rapunzel is a crock of poop! It's just going to keep happening over and over. It's not fair to the teacher or the other students in that classroom. When I was younger and going to school, the student who caused a problem was immediately taken from the classroom. If that wasn't possible, the teacher put the student in the coat closet and closed the door!

After only one warning, the parents were then called to pick up the student and gave for first offense, a 2 day suspension. If it kept up, the student was then given a month to rethink their attitude. The student came to school but was put into a detension area with at least 4 supervisors watching them. They lost all their ability to mingle with their friends and this system truly did work.

I totally agree with you - apart from shutting the child in the coat closet which would be considered abuse!



Suspension doesn't work, it just aggravates the situation.



However, I think a detention area is a very good solution. Losing the ability to mingle cuts them off from their audience. I shall suggest this to our Head as tomorrow is an inset day - for teachers only - and following all the riots a few weeks ago, discipline is bound to be on the top of her agenda.

 

[Jazzy]

I hope they listen to your suggestion! Lock them all in one room with nothing allowed in there except school books!

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Ive seen a teacher get punched in the face before in high school.



The teacher was telling a student to take off his hat. The student said he wasnt going to. The teacher then took the hat off his head and walked back to his desk. The student walked up to the teacher, punched him in the eye, took his hat back and walked out of the class.

Needless to say, we never saw that kid again.

 

[Jazzy]

Ive seen a teacher get punched in the face before in high school.



The teacher was telling a student to take off his hat. The student said he wasnt going to. The teacher then took the hat off his head and walked back to his desk. The student walked up to the teacher, punched him in the eye, took his hat back and walked out of the class.

Needless to say, we never saw that kid again.

Unbelievable what this student did! Can you imagine how he's going to act when he gets older?

 

[Chatsie]

Can you imagine how he behaves at home !



That student is typical of the type that have no respect

for authority. All this 'don't touch' stuff being aimed at

teachers and parents is, in my opinion, at least partly

to blame for this kind of behaviour.

 

[Jazzy]

He'll probably be in jail before he graduates highschool.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Well this situation happened like 10 years ago who knows. I went to a 'ghetto' school so I imagine half my former classmates are dead or in jail by now.

 

[Masri]

Our school uses in school suspension all the time. Basically, you're in a room (which is divided into little cubicles) all day, and you're not allowed to do like anything, get zeros on all your classwork, and do twice the amount of stuff you would be doing in class. It works decently well for those who get more minor offenses like cell phones, tardies, and excessive absences and such, but nothing more. If you get in a fight or something then they suspend you (ten days for fighting). Our school isn't that bad, but most of the people there aren't naturally that bad.



Oh, and the teacher can also send you to ISS if you're acting up in class for that one period, which does help a lot.

 

[Cranos]

It's really surprising for me to read that it has come to this point in other countries. My personal experience has been that if someone touches a teacher even with a gentle push, they will be expelled. I almost can't imagine teacher getting punched by students, even if they were incredibly boring, they still had some respect. =/

 

[Evil Eye]

It's really surprising for me to read that it has come to this point in other countries. My personal experience has been that if someone touches a teacher even with a gentle push, they will be expelled. I almost can't imagine teacher getting punched by students, even if they were incredibly boring, they still had some respect. =/

Same here actually...

Though, thinking about it now, I had a teacher who used to work at a school for the lowest sort of secondary education (or something like that). He had some interesting tales to tell... Including one about how a teacher'd been knocked out by a student with a piece of wood.

(And kids tattooing and piercing themselves )

 

[Cranos]

Same here actually...

Though, thinking about it now, I had a teacher who used to work at a school for the lowest sort of secondary education (or something like that). He had some interesting tales to tell... Including one about how a teacher'd been knocked out by a student with a piece of wood.

(And kids tattooing and piercing themselves )

Yeah, I know a lot of people who tattooed themselves. If it's a small, simple design it's actually not that hard. XD



I've heard similar stories of our BSO (lowest secondary education, much like your MBO), but they're still exceptions...