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School staff bitten, spat on and headbutted as classroom violence is revealed

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A terrifying catalogue of classroom violence against teaching staff in the Western Isles has been revealed.

The attacks, mainly on auxiliaries and support staff, included staff being bitten, spat on and headbutted.

The classroom chaos has even included three women being bitten on the breasts.

Police were not called to any of those bite incidents and official logs list punishment as “nothing noted”.

Unions described the dozens of attacks as “utterly shameful and dreadful”.

According to the figures, obtained using freedom of information legislation, a pupil threw a scooter then “headbutted and spat at teachers and staff.”


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Another case involved a primary pupil bite an auxiliary and hit a janitor, breaking his glasses.

The pupil threw items around the library and told the auxiliary he would kill her parents if she called police.

Earlier this month, it emerged that teaching staff across Scotland have faced more than 16,000 attacks in the past three years – a rise of nearly 10% year-on-year.

Despite only having 25 schools listed online, Western Isles Council recorded 188 assaults on staff from 2015 to 2018, with police involved five times. In another case, an additional support needs worker was heading to class last year when a child “became aggressive.”

The staff member suffered “a bite to right breast, causing bruising.”

Larry Flanagan, General Secretary of EIS

The Educational Institute of Scotland general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “We are clear that a zero-tolerance approach should be taken to incidents involving violence or the threat of violence towards teachers.”

A Western Isles Council spokesman said: “Any incident resulting in offence or injury to staff is regrettable and we treat all incidents seriously and encourage the reporting of all incidents.

“In addition, risk assessments and support plans are in place to support most young people.”