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The playground and classroom should be areas of learning and development. But on more than 7,000 occasions in England last year, there were incidents of violence deemed so serious that the police were called in. “The figures,” said the Conservative Party who obtained them, “are alarming and just the tip of the iceberg.
"Teachers don’t call out the police for minor incidents. These are very serious incidents being faced by the school, and they are indicative of a more severe behavioral issue in our schools as a whole that really does have to be tackled, if we are to raise academic standards in schools.
The National Union of Teachers insists that it’s a minority causing serious problems in schools, and also argues that the figures reflected an improved relationship between schools and the police.
Now headteachers can feel confident that they can call up the local policemen, the local police station if they have a problem with a third party--a parent coming in and threatening them-- if there is someone that’s come over the fence for example, if there is a gang at the school gate.
The conservatives say that they aren’t suggesting that schools are entirely empty of discipline, but they do believe that the figures would have been higher if all police forces have responded. Teaching bodies have accused them of scaremongering. The government has rejected the conservatives’ claims and said that the overwhelming majority of schools are a safe and suitable environment for children to study and play.
Alistair Bunkall of Sky News