Hugely over-stated claims of physical abuse of teachers
Wednesday, November 7 2007
Scottish Borders Council has acted promptly to correct the hugely overstated claims put forward by MSP John Lamont that physical attacks upon teachers in schools have risen by 447% in the past year.
Speaking about Mr Lamont’s statement Cllr Catriona Bhatia, Executive Member for Education, said: “In October the department responded to an FOI request on physical attacks on teachers in our schools, but unfortunately the information for 2005/6 and 2006/7 was not presented on a consistent basis and the data has been misinterpreted.
“On a like for like basis the statistics on ‘phsyical abuse’ of teachers in schools is
- 2005/6 – 30 incidents
- 2006/7 – 40 incidents
The 2006/7 figures quoted by Mr Lamont include verbal abuse and incidents against a whole range of non teaching staff – many of which are relatively minor but our staff are now encouraged to report every incident as we will not tolerate any abuse of our staff.
“However even the most superficial review shows that the basis of information for 2005/6 and 2006/7 is very different and it should not have been used in this way. I am very disappointed that Mr Lamont chose to promote his claims without checking with the Council first.
“It is even possible that the increase in the two year may be due to better reporting and certainly in my many visits to schools over the past six months this issue has not been raised with me. But that said, any increase in incidents is unacceptable and we are working through a combination of positive behaviour training and zero tolerance to abuse, to ensure that all of our staff can work in safety in our schools.”
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