Teaching union say assault 'almost accepted' in Falkirk Council schools

The EIS says some teachers are being sent back into the classroom minutes after enduring assaults and one member was even disciplined for shouting at a pupil after being assaulted.

Last week, a Freedom of Information request by Falkirk Conservatives revealed a shocking 1000 per cent rise in assaults – physical and verbal – on school staff, since 2018.

Falkirk Council said the rise was due to a new way of reporting assaults.

The local EIS, which is the biggest teachers’ union in Scotland, agrees that the new recording system has made it much easier to report incidents but says the figures are now giving a more accurate picture of the scale of abuse staff are enduring.

Commenting on the FOI figures, Colin Finlay said: “It’s difficult to say whether assaults are happening more. Our view is that assaults have always happened in schools – they’ve just gone unreported.

“But I think there is a real issue in schools at the moment and this year it is mainstream pupils that are acting up. Whether that’s due to issues from lockdown, I don’t know, but we have been asking for more to be done to protect teachers and other school staff as well.”

The FOI revealed that on average five assaults are happening in Falkirk schools every day. Between April 2017 and March 2018, there were 95 reported incidents – including verbal abuse and physical assault – on teachers and staff members. Between April 2021 and March 2022, however, this had risen to 940 reported assaults – an increase of 989 per cent.

Mr Finlay says the figures do not surprise him. “I know that a lot of staff believe that they are treated differently to other council employees – they feel that assault is almost accepted, when its in a school,” he said.

“In what other job would it be acceptable to be sworn at, spat on, kicked or hit? We’ve heard of some incidences where staff have been assaulted and then not allowed to go home. They’re just expected to get on with it.

“There was even a teacher who was assaulted three times in the space of 20 minutes – he was then disciplined for losing his cool and shouting at the pupil. It was outrageous. That’s the understanding level we’re up against.”

The union fears that if anything the figures don’t capture the whole picture. They worry that teachers’ concerns are often being dismissed – and that young teachers in particular are being told by headteachers not to report things.

“It’s better now because of the new reporting system, which means there is no gatekeeper but I think it still goes on,” said Mr Finlay. “For example, I’ve got evidence that when two members of staff were assaulted, that’s only getting classed as one assault.”

Mr Finlay stresses that there are many schools in Falkirk that have worked very effectively to address violent behaviour.

“I think a solution is there but firstly you have to admit there is a problem. We’ve raised this for years and the EIS are more than happy to sit down and try to work something out but our employer is almost saying that it’s not happening.

“We don’t want to criminalise people – we want to change behaviours, but we’re not going to change behaviours by ignoring it.”

A spokesperson for Falkirk Council said: “We work with trade unions to minimise any threat to our teaching and support staff and intervention is taken when merited. The new reporting system that we are using is providing a more accurate picture of what is happening and where our support can be best used.”