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Teachers will today debate a proposal to set up time out rooms in high schools for disruptive students.
Almost one in 10 teachers surveyed in a new study commissioned by the Post Primary Teachers Association's (PPTA) Hutt Valley and Wellington regions responded that they were frightened of students with severe behaviour problems.
Teachers faced verbal abuse, physical attacks in class and had students turn up with weapons or high on drugs.
Forty per cent of teachers to respond experienced severely disruptive behaviour either often or sometimes.
Teacher Peter Calvert yesterday said Government-funded "time out rooms" needed to be set up in high schools across the country.
He said teachers needed a place to send students in the heat of the moment.
The meeting is set to discuss the idea more fully when the conference continues today.
Members voted to seek more resources for schools handling troublesome students. They also voted to push ahead with a controversial plan for the PPTA to work to amend legislation to allow information sharing about students with a history of high risk behavioural problems that may put members of a school at risk.
PPTA president Robin Duff said teachers were losing patience.
"There is a feeling it has been completely inadequate in terms of resourcing," said Mr Duff.
"We keep talking about it and talking about it while the problem is getting worse all the time."
The survey found students most likely to cause trouble were in Years 9 and 10 and at low decile schools and were boys.
PPTA members shared stories of problems in class.
Rosie Jones of Thames Valley was teaching five junior classes, of which four were difficult to control.
Rae Brown, from the Bay of Plenty, said misbehaving students were a recruitment problem for the industry.
"So many times I've seen young teachers say 'no this is not for me. I can't take it anymore. Why should I put up with having the f-word said to me every five seconds in a period?'," she said.
