Rising violence in schools 'due to lax discipline'

[milmor_1]

Rising violence in schools 'due to lax discipline'
12:00PM Sunday July 29, 2007



The removal of corporal punishment in schools has been highlighted as a root cause of the rise in violence against teachers.

A New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) survey has found one in seven primary school teachers were hit by their pupils last year.

The study also found more than 50 per cent of teachers and more than 25 per cent of school support staff reported "aggressive verbal confrontations" with pupils.

Bob McCoskrie, national director of conservative family lobby group Family First, said a Justice Ministry report late last year showed serious youth violence had increased by 27 per cent since 1996.

"All of these young people have entered a system of education and society where discipline and responsibility are being replaced by the politically correct nonsense of childrens' rights," said says Mr McCoskrie.

"It is significant that as schools have removed corporal punishment, schools have become more dangerous. School yard bullying by pupils on other pupils and staff is now the new form of 'corporal punishment' in schools.

He said behaviour of pupils would will continue to deteriorate for "as long as we tell them that their rights are more important than their responsibilities."

The NZEI survey found the most common assaults involved students pushing, shoving or shouldering teachers, followed by "punched or struck with open hand" and "kicked or stomped".

Other reported being "scratched, kicked" and "hit by object".

Some of the attacks were not covered by the survey, so respondents wrote them in -- one noted "spat in face", another was headbutted.

Year 3 students accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the assaults, and, nine times out of ten, boys were the ones hitting their teachers.

The most common event leading up to the attacks involved children contesting staff members' directions, followed by attacks resulting from attempts to restrain the children from hitting others.


Twenty per cent of teachers and support staff said they had been verbally abused by parents -- often in front of their children.

"Parents are becoming an increasing problem, very verbal over very minor problems. [They show] very poor modelling for children," one principal said.

NZEI acting national manager Peter Monteith said violent students "seriously undermine the teaching and learning process." "The survey is a 'wake up call' for everyone involved in education either directly or indirectly to ensure that our schools remain safe and effective in terms of teaching and learning," he said.

- NZPA
Rising violence in schools 'due to lax discipline' - 29 Jul 2007 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news

[BrianK]

Corporal punishment is in direct conflict with the thought process of time outs.

If time outs were working then why are kids showing up in schools demonstrating violence? Granted not all kids are violent. But what I got out of the article, when a child is identified as "out of the norm" in social adjustment the parents often are in denial.

I believe what we are seeing is the domino effect. Parents that aren't parents but adults that supply food, clothing & shelter to their tax deductions. They are shirking the responsibility they have as parents and their children are headed the same way. Almost like a venereal disease where one infects others & those infect others. I don't think a source has been identified but the disease of lack of responsibility is spreading.

Shame was associated with getting whacked by a teachers paddle, now it's a source of income via a lawsuit.

It must be h*ll for a teacher to have a job that puts their well being in jepardy.

[Chrisj]

The situation is pretty much the same in the UK where childrens rights have been taken to the extreme by liberal minded wets who think every problem can be solved by dialogue. The consequence of this is a generation of children who are ignored by their parents and allowed to do what ever they like as long as they keep out from under their parents feet. The teacher who tries to restore some level of discipline in these feral youths will most likely be subject to verbal or physical assault from the child or the parents and in some cases both.

The authorities and the legal system seem loath to do antyhing to protect teachers or other pupils from these animals and in many cases take the easy solution suspending teachers on the weakest of allegations. These suspensions often last months and when the teacher is finally cleared their career is effectively ruined, whilst the child is left free to carry on behaving in any manner they like secure in the knowledge that they will never be called to account.

It is not unheard of for schools to remove the victims of bullying especially if they are vocal in their complaints because this is seen as an easier option than trying to tackle the bullies. Most schools only pay lip service to anti bullying measures because when it boils right down to the bottom line they can do nothing. They are not allowed to carry out any form of corporal punishment (in some cases it would be better if it was capital punishment), detentions can only last a few minutes and cannot be enforced without the co operation of the parents, the same with lines where if the child doesn't complete the punishment there is nothing else that can be done.

Even exclusion doesn't work, children who have carried out some very violent attacks often have their exclusion overturned by a board of governers of the local authority. Schools are financially punished for excluding pupils regardless of the childs actions, protection of the schools staff and other pupils is apparently only of secondary importance compared to the right of the young hooligan.

Its about time schools were allowed to teach and not be some form of political football. Education is important and for every disruptive influence in the classroom thirty other pupils pay the price is lost educational opportunities. The disruptive children then go on to be disruptive adults believing they have a right to do whatever they want with their lives to the detriment of the rest of society.

[leobold1]

In my school career, all 14 and a half years of it, I spent 6 years in private schools. In the years I spent in public school, there were fights all year long, many times more than one a week. The students were expelled (agressor) or suspended (defender), also depending on the severity of the fight.

While in private school, I can remember only one fight.

The major difference...the public school fights were treated as a normal occurance. You get kicked out of school for a few days if you were attacked, or the rest of the year if you were the attacker. VACATION!

The private school fighters were both arrested and sent to juvenile hall (kid jail) for 6 months to a year and never allowed to return to the school, or any other owned by the company that ran the school.

We had one kid that threatened a teacher. 3 years in juvenile hall for him, and he was blacklisted in the private school system for the rest of his life.

The private schools stressed education over all else. The winning or losing of the sports teams were seen as a big deal with morale, but if you didn't maintain an 90% in all classes, not an average of 90%, but a minimum of 90% in all classes, you got kicked off the team and were not allowed back on when your grades improved.

Schools are a place of learning. If a child won't learn, you do all you can to help. But you don't sacrifice your teachers for the sake of a lawsuit.

The private schools were sued each time for the "harsh treatment" shown to the "students". In one case, the school paid nothing after trial. The second one (3 years in jail) the school had to pay the parents $45 and court costs. Total of about $100 dollars.

I'm looking to send my mini-me there if I can get up the money for it.

Oh, by the way...all three kids were below age 9 when they did their dastardly deed.