Assaults On School Suport Staff
Tuesday 8th June
2010
There is a hidden
epidemic of violence in our schools that is not being dealt with
says GMB
GMB the union for school support staff
revealed that more than 500 attacks were carried out by pupils on
teaching assistants and support staff in Bradford primary schools
in the last 18 months.
GMB Bradford convenor Ray Alderman
told the GMB Congress today in Southport that the figure of 526 was
collated by GMB from incident reports filled out by schools. He
said the attacks took place in primary and special schools from
January 2009, and that they included instances of biting, kicking,
butting, chairs being thrown and staff being stabbed with
pencils.
Ray Alderman said "It's
totally unacceptable – you don't go to work to be attacked. So we
want to put pressure on the Government to pressurise local
authorities to offer better support to our members suffering in
these attacks, and to work to reduce the attacks in the first
place."
Neil Derrick GMB senior officer in
Yorkshire Region said "There is a hidden epidemic of
violence in our schools that it is not being dealt with. The
problem is far worse in secondary schools – to such an extent that
police officers are deployed in schools to deal with such
behaviour.
GMB want to see all councils,
and schools where they do not rport to councils, publish in full
all the figures for physical and verbal attacks on staff over the
38 week term. We want to see schools and education authorities
making concrete plans with pupils, parents staff and all other
agencies to deal with this epidemic.
GMB want to see a policy of
zero tolerance towards assaults followed in our schools. Society as
a whole will benefit if this hidden problem is brought out into the
open and dealt with. Children early in their lives need to have set
for them clear boundaries as to what constitutes acceptable
behaviour. The lack of these boundaries is impacting directly on
the our members in schools. GMB, the union for school
support staff, pledges to play a positive part in helping to deal
with this problem."
End
Contact: Neil Derrick
GMB senior officer in Yorkshire Region 07958 156832 or
Ray Alderman GMB Bradford 07850 453387 or David McLean GMB Leeds
07725 417 364 or GMB press office 07974 251823 or
07921289880