MORE than eight pupils are suspended from school every day for assaulting their classmates, with attacks on teachers, classroom assistants, principals and other staff leading to hundreds more temporary exclusions.
The shocking scale of the pupil-on-pupil attacks is revealed in figures obtained by The Irish News which reveal that over a 10-year period there were more than 18,000 physical assaults that led to pupils being removed from school for a time.
Few young people have been expelled, however, and teachers say that although the suspension figures are high, hundreds more pupils receive lesser punishments, including detentions, for assaults.
Figures obtained by The Irish News reveal that in the 1,900 school days between 2004/05 and 2013/14 there were 15,884 suspensions for physical attacks on pupils. There were a further 2,273 for physical attacks on staff in that time.
Expulsions have been few and far between. The Department of Education could only provide figures for the six-year period from 2008/09 to 2013/14 during which there were a total of 31 pupils expelled for physical attacks on other pupils.
Gerry Murphy, northern secretary of the INTO union, said schools should be places in which teachers and young people can feel safe.
Interventions by teachers, in situations where the health and wellbeing of a young person was threatened, were always about protecting the individual from harm, he said, and teachers deserve the same protection afforded to young people in their care.