Principals put panic buttons in offices

By Bronwyn Sell

Some schools are coming under fire for not doing enough to protect children and teachers from violence.

Youth Law solicitor David Fleming says there is an alarming lack of action on bullying in some schools, and he has called for law changes to introduce penalties for failing to ensure student safety.

Nearly 4500 school students were suspended last year for physical and verbal attacks on teachers and other students.

Bill Harris, a field officer for the Post Primary Teachers Association, said many schools did not have policies to deal with violent students and did not recognise Occupational Safety and Health guidelines.

Mr Fleming said school responses to violence varied widely and they were often too quick to suspend, although laws introduced last month might change that.

The new president of the Principals' Federation, Geoff Lovegrove, said some schools developed a head-in-the-sand attitude, but most handled problems well.

He said the problems usually started outside the school gates and teachers were becoming increasingly wary of violent parents.

"Without wanting to sound major alarm sirens, we have alerted our principals to the need to consider the safety of staff."

Some principals had installed panic buttons in their offices to call for help and had stopped teachers conducting parent-teacher interviews alone in the classroom.

At his school in Feilding in June, the police had to be called in after a parent threatened staff because his child had not arrived home.

"His words were, he was going to kill someone in the staffroom if he didn't get what he wanted. The staff were pretty stunned at that."

The president of the School Trustees Association, Owen Edgerton, said some schools were dealing with violence problems well and some were not, but boards needed flexibility.

The president of the PPTA, Graeme Macann, said it was hard for schools to admit they had a problem with violence.

"When schools are in a competitive situation, it's extraordinarily difficult for them to publicly acknowledge they've got a problem to do with anything, especially in areas that are sensitive and will inevitably cause some alarm among parents."

The Minister of Education, Nick Smith, does not think schools should be forced to adopt generic rules on violence.

"Schools are required by law to provide a safe environment for students. But that's the easy part. The difficult part is actually to deliver on that."