A SHOCKING catalogue of violence against teachers in Jersey’s schools can today be revealed by the JEP.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Code show that children as young as six are being suspended for assaults in the classroom. They include:
• A seven-year-old boy who punched his tutor.
• A boy aged 15 who fired a pellet gun at another pupil.
• An eight-year-old girl accused of violent behaviour towards a member of staff.
• A 14-year-old girl caught with a knife on school grounds.
In total there have been 32 suspensions for violence in Island schools during the last three years, 23 involving boys and nine involving girls. Some of the pupils were suspended more than once. The youngest child to be barred from school was a six-year-old boy who was suspended for one day after assaulting a teacher in a classroom in March last year.
Although the figures show that assaults on teachers in the Island are less common than in the UK, they reveal that extremely young children in Jersey are prepared to use violence in the classroom. Education Minister Deputy James Reed (pictured) said that he was ‘aware that teachers are concerned about managing aggressive pupils’.
