An “aggression epidemic” in Scottish secondary schools is leaving “many teachers feeling unsafe at work and unsupported by employers”, a teaching union has said after a survey of nearly 2,500 members.
The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) survey found that 75 per cent of respondents reported having experienced verbal aggression in the previous year, while one in eight reported having been physically assaulted at work over that period.
The union stated: “Perhaps it is not surprising that 75 per cent of secondary teachers reported not feeling safe at work.”
However, the union fears that “the extent of violence against teachers may not be fully appreciated by local authorities”, given that only a third of those who had been assaulted went on to complete a “violent incident form” or equivalent process. The SSTA said that survey comments suggested “a deep level of scepticism over whether officially recording violent incidents makes any difference in practice, while other comments suggest that some teachers had been actively discouraged from completing them by senior management”.
Some 4 per cent of teachers who had been assaulted at work reported the matter to police. Teachers reported not doing so for various reasons, ranging from fear that the police would not take the report seriously to concerns that taking such action would not improve the situation.
On school exclusions, the SSTA said: “Schools continue to have the legal power to exclude pupils for seriously unacceptable behaviour but there is pressure from government and local authorities to see a fall in the usage of short-term exclusions, especially for care-experienced young people. Official figures confirm that there has been such a reduction in recent years but, of course, this does not mean that fewer incidents of seriously unacceptable behaviour are occurring - merely that fewer of those incidents are resulting in short-term exclusions being applied.
“The survey provided some evidence to support this belief, in that two-thirds of teachers reported that pupils who had committed verbal or physical aggression against them were returned to their classes before the matter had been resolved.”
The survey by the SSTA’s additional support needs and education committees led to 2,478 members responding.
SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said: “This survey has provided clear evidence of an aggression epidemic sweeping through our schools which has left many teachers feeling unsafe at work and unsupported by employers who have a legal duty to ensure their health and safety”.
“No teacher should have to go to work worried in case they will be a victim of verbal aggression or even assault that day. School managements must ensure that appropriate actions are taken in response to violence and verbal aggression against staff, including properly risk assessing pupils with a propensity for violent outbursts before any decision is taken to return those pupils to their classes.”
