Verbal abuse mars working lives of teachers
Verbal abuse mars working lives of teachers
Verbal abuse is marring teachers' working lives, a conference has heard. Speaking ahead of last week's NASUWT bullying conference Chris Keates, the union's general secretary, said: 'Constant challenges to authority, refusal to obey school rules, offensive remarks and swearing are marring teachers' working lives. The extent of this behaviour is still underestimated. NASUWT has called for a national register of physical and verbal assaults on workers and has the backing of the TUC for this initiative.' NASUWT national executive member John Rimmer added: 'Teachers are still being subjected to verbal abuse and threatening behaviour on a daily basis. It continues to be one of the main reasons teachers leave the profession. A consistent strategy for dealing with pupils must be applied nationally.' He added: 'Governing bodies have a legal duty to ensure the safety of employees in the workplace and to report criminal acts that take place at the school to the police and ensure that where a teacher is physically assaulted by a pupil, that pupil is permanently excluded. Zero tolerance to verbal abuse and threatening behaviour is the only way forward.' Schools minister Jim Knight told the conference bullying of teachers was 'absolutely intolerable.' He said: 'There is absolutely no place for violence, threatening behaviour or abuse in schools,' adding: 'I fully back the Heads who stand up for their staff and pupils by removing or prosecuting anyone - whether pupil or parent - who does not respect that.' A drama production, 'Slipping Up', jointly funded by NASUWT, UNISON and NUT, was unveiled at the conference and deals with risk assessment for stress and violence at work, older workers and the role of health and safety representatives in the workplace.
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