Train all staff to restrain unruly pupils says school heads' union

From the Scotsman:

"TEACHERS should be taught physical restraint techniques amid mounting concerns over classroom indiscipline, a leading union claimed last night.

Members of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS) said training should be available for all school staff to make them better equipped to cope with unruly pupils.

The union has also called for teachers and their assistants to be trained in "de-escalation techniques" to prevent incidents of indiscipline getting out of control."

I've got a problem with the way these sort of stories are reported. In Glasgow schools, anyway, the level of discipline is not very good and I've encountered some schools and classes where it is absolutely shocking. But even in the very worst situations, it is only on the rarest occasions that I have felt personally threatened. Very badly-behaved pupils tend to be a menace to other pupils most of the time.

Whenever the meeja runs a story on a genuine concern teachers have, they tend to pick on the most extreme examples they can. It's like when they have a piece about teacher's working hours; they invariably wheel someone out who says something like, "To get all my work done, I'm in at 7 o'clock in the morning and don't get out until after six" - and I think, "Why, why would you do that to yourself, you lunatic?"

Anyway, the AHDS is not a 'leading union' - it's just for a bunch of management that are too snotty to join the EiS or the SSTA and whose members are obviously traumatised on the rare occasion they actually come into contact with any we'ans.

And if we're going to have training to deal with this sort of thing, I don't want any wimpy "de-escalation techniques". Lessons in Kung Fu or something would be nearer the mark.