The horrifying scale of classroom violence in Scotland has been laid bare through letters sent directly to education chiefs by fearful parents, detailed for the first time in a new dossier. The personal accounts reveal the daily turmoil that staff, pupils, and their parents have endured for half a decade.
Scope of the Problem
Critics have warned that the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) failure to address the issue has allowed it to worsen. The letters, sent to former education secretaries Jenny Gilruth and Shirley-Anne Somerville during the last parliamentary term, contain brutal accounts of attacks on teachers, widespread bullying, and children so frequently violent that entire classes have had to be evacuated up to twice a day for safety.
Of the 90 letters obtained, more than half were sent in 2023 when Ms. Gilruth, now Deputy First Minister, took over as Education Secretary. Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden, who secured the documents through Freedom of Information requests, stated: 'Teachers and pupils are being attacked every day in our schools with no protections or repercussions in place. The SNP’s only method of dealing with this growing scourge is restorative discussion, evacuating classrooms, and treating victims like they’re the ones to be punished.'
Rising Incidents
The number of recorded incidents of violence against school staff has soared by 55 per cent in two years, with more than 35,000 recorded across Scotland last year. In a recent exchange from January this year, a grandmother and grandfather said their grandchild had told them 'stories of the violence, both physically and mentally, your education system exposes them to by these classroom disruptors.' The couple added: 'The responsibility for taking action on that is down to you and your peers.'
Personal Accounts
Ministers were asked to intervene in a range of horrific incidents. In one case, a 'heartbroken' mother told of how the abuse suffered by her child was described as a 'non-event' by the school. In 2023, another parent reported the situation reaching 'boiling point' with their child experiencing 'continual bullying,' stating: 'Our children and teachers are not safe from violence, they are not properly equipped to deal with it due to inadequate policies.'
Even the parents of a primary school teacher wrote to Ms. Gilruth after the staff member was left 'dripping blood' following an attack, warning that the government’s lack of investment in schools would result in someone being 'seriously hurt.' They said children were being 'deprived of teaching' and the government had 'starved local authorities of funding which could be used for teaching assistants, nurture room staff and smaller class sizes.'
In August last year, another desperate parent told of how their child’s classroom had been 'evacuated on a daily basis, if not twice a day' due to violence. Mr. Lumsden commented: 'This exposes the SNP’s shameful weakness on classroom discipline.'
Government Response
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: 'Any form of violent or abusive behaviour in school is completely unacceptable.'
