How Safe Is Your Child With The Increase In School Violence?
Official figures that were released in July 2009 showed that in England 65,390 pupils were temporarily excluded for violence against other classmates. And this is on the rise compared to previous years. In some parts of the country figures were up by 110% on the previous years.
The shadow children's minister said that "This is further evidence of the lack of discipline in our schools. It is vital that teachers are given control over the classroom so they can deal with bad behaviour before it escalates into violence"
However, this is not a situation that happens within the classroom. Violence and bullying within schools is more prevalent away from the direct supervision of teachers. On the whole these types of incidents happen either on the way to and from school or during break times.
While it is a fair enough expectation for parents to count on teachers to keep their children safe while at school, parents and teachers need to take responsibility for educating children how to protect themselves from this violence and bullying.
The other problem that exists here is teachers will effectively deal with the situation once it has happened, but not enough focus is put on pre-empting violent behaviour. Parents and teachers need to take a more proactive approach to stop these situations before they have a chance to become violent. They teach children proper self defence skills.
Self defence education should not be about teaching pupils to fight back though. Proper self defence training deals with the psychological aspects of aggressive and violent behaviour. Teaching children basic self defence skills will empower them to avoid violent behaviour effectively.
