Hanafin moves to tackle school discipline problems

STUDENTS who carry dangerous weapons make threats and sexual remarks to teachers or assault classmates could have some of their legal rights cut back as a result of measures being announced today.

A review of legal entitlements available to disruptive students is expected to be featured in the package being announced by Education Minister Mary Hanafin to tackle school discipline problems.

She will also publish the long-awaited report of the Task Force on Student Behaviour in Second-Level Schools, the result of a year's work assessing the extent of the problems. The report details international practice dealing with bad behaviour and recommends measures to address the worsening situation.

One of the main demands of teachers and school managers in this area has been changes to the 1998 Education Act, which allows students to appeal decisions to expel or suspend them.

The minister has promised to review Section 29 which allows such appeals if it has been recommended by the task force, chaired by Dr Maeve Martin from NUI Maynooth. Ms Hanafin received the report in January, but has remained tight-lipped about its contents since then.

However, she has allocated €2 million to be spent on implementing its recommendations this year alone, with a portion of the funding expected to go to the establishment of referral units in schools. These would accommodate students with persistent discipline problems, but also satisfy their right to an education.

The details will be announced by Ms Hanafin this afternoon to school management bodies, parent representatives and teacher unions, who were among almost 150 groups which made submissions to the task force. Its interim report last July cited the more serious end of the incidents faced by school staff, including students carrying dangerous weapons, making threats and sexual remarks to teachers, assaulting classmates and using obscene language.

The task force believes some cases warranted being reported to the gardaí as they could be categorised as criminal behaviour.

Ahead of the final report's publication, the extent of the problem was highlighted by shocking figures revealed in the outcome of a Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) survey yesterday. It found that members are witnessing levels of behaviour that could in some cases be classed as criminal.

Half of the 1,200 teachers who took part had seen unacceptable bullying or cruelty to students by their peers in the past week alone, and one-in-five had seen it in the shape of unacceptable physical violence.

Teachers themselves are under constant threat of being victimised, with the survey finding that about one-third had very recent experience of their property being damaged or being verbally abused by students.

It shows one-in-five teachers are at the receiving end of threatening or intimidating behaviour on a weekly basis and 8% said unacceptable sexual innuendo or harassment had been directed at them by students in the past week.