Teachers back students' call to be treated as adults

Teachers are backing calls from secondary school students to be treated as young adults.

Leaving-cert pupils are demanding that schools acknowledge their difference from junior pupils and banish rules on uniforms and hair styles.

The students claim that current school rules treat them as children and that the Department of Education needs to wake up to the changed nature of teenagers.

The President of the Teachers Union of Ireland, Paddy Healy said today that he agrees with the students.