Mock threat with AK47 among aggression faced by teachers

The shocking incident at Park Lane Learning Trust was one of 27 recorded incidents of violence and aggression towards staff published by Calderdale Council prior to a meeting tomorrow night.

Elsewhere teachers and children suffered being spat at, punched, kicked and butted.

In one school, a child bent and threatened to break their teacher’s finger,

There were also incidents in children’s homes, community centres and council offices.

One involved a child “placing his teeth into the victim’s head” and an adult threatening to kill a child’s foster parents.

Also recorded was a complaint about an anonymous racist text message.

Many of the incidents were carried out by primary aged school children.

Calderdale councillor Megan Swift, a member of Calderdale Council’s employees’ forum which is due to discuss the issue tomorrow said last night: “The incident with the gun threat was very, very unfortunate and I am sure was dealt with appropriately.’’

Teaching union spokesman, Ashton Thripland, said the list of shame showed the problems staff faced in some classrooms.

“There are no easy solutions and teachers are not social workers but every child matters and systems must be put in place to try to ensure they are fully reported and investigated,” he said.

The latest list of incidents date back to the summer of 2010 .

The council’s head of human resources, John Walsh said: “Such acts towards staff can lead to time off, litigation and in the worst case prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive. And the costs can be significant.”

The council has a policy which states that employees must not have to tolerate violence and aggression in the workplace.

A spokesman for Education Bradford said: “The latest figures we have available show there were 401 incidents against non-teaching staff and 145 on teachers.

This compares with 1,570 incidents on non-teaching staff in 2006 and 600 on teachers.

“We are proud that the efforts of our staff, working in partnership with schools over the last three years, has seen a reduction in such incidents of 75 per cent.

“A number of measures are responsible for the drop, including dedicated behaviour support centres for children who need help, care and control policies in place at schools, improvements in training school staff in “team teach” a method of handling difficult behaviour, and increased training in special schools.”