More than half of school support staff suffer shocking violence including stabbings and attempted strangulations, a shocking new study has revealed.
In one horrifying case a pregnant teaching assistant suffered a miscarriage after being kicked in the stomach by pupil, GMB survey reveals
More than half of school staff experience shocking violence at work – with more than 16 per cent suffering attacks every week.
Appalling assaults include stabbings, attempted strangulation and pupils trying to chop off a teaching assistant’s (TA’s) fingers with scissors.
In one horrifying case, a pregnant TA suffered a miscarriage after being kicked in the stomach.
Other members of staff have had faeces thrown at them, been spat at and had their hair cut off.
Parents have threatened school support staff, while school crossing patrol staff report cars being driven at them by angry motorists.
School support staff report terrible injuries from the attacks, including broken jaws, broken noses, knee replacements suspected heart attacks and broken necks.
GMB surveyed almost 5,000 school support staff.
More than 2,400 said they had experienced violence at work, with 778 saying they were attacked every week.
Karen Leonard, GMB National Officer, said: “These stories from the frontline by GMB’s school staff members are truly disturbing.
“They can face a litany of violence that would constitute criminal offences in other jobs.
“No-one should be physically threatened at work. Violence from parents in particular is completely inexcusable.
“School support staff love their jobs, love the kids and want to carry on doing their best for the children.
“All they ask is their school backs them up when it does happen – and takes the common-sense steps needed to protect them.
“Throughout this year we have been asking schools to sign up to GMB’s code of conduct to ensure attacks on members, when they happen, are dealt with properly.”
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
