Scottish Liberal Democrats call for action to tackle violence in schools

At the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in Dundee, the party has today called for more support for schools and teachers to tackle growing cases of classroom violence.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat proposals include:  

• Giving teachers and staff the resources, support and training to respond effectively and reduce incidents of violence.  
• Delivering more specialist provision, such as classroom assistants, educational psychologists and specialist teachers.
• Cutting the waits for child and adolescent mental health services.
• Sufficiently investing in core education provision.

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie, who moved the motion, said: 

“The footage from a Fife classroom of one young girl kicking another in the face will stay with me, probably forever.  

“Since pupils returned to school after months of lockdown, violence in classrooms has soared and staff are almost universally reporting a sharp increase in behavioural problems.  

“There is a conspiracy of silence and under-reporting among the Scottish political and educational leadership who cannot admit the severity of the problem or that the current approach is just not working. This failure undermines trust with teachers and staff.  

“Punishing the symptoms can leave a child or young person resentful rather than reflective, so we need to develop a considered approach that gets to the root causes.  

“The measures approved by the Scottish Liberal Democrats recognise that for many staff, teachers and pupils, violence is a daily occurrence which we must start listening to and, crucially, acting on.”