School leaders facing verbal and physical abuse says Coventry NEU
Headteachers are facing more and more abuse from parents each year
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) say senior leaders are being verbally and physical abused.
The latest poll from NAHT found that our in five school leaders had felt abused by parents in the past year.
One in ten head teachers say they had also experienced physical violence.
The abuse recorded varied, threatening behaviour was the most common (68%), followed by online abuse (46%) and discriminatory language (22%), including use of racist, sexist or homophobic terms.
Christopher Denson is a member of Coventry NEU, he says he was not surprised by the statistics as teachers continue to face immense pressures.
Christopher said: "We have a system which is constantly undermining teachers and school leaders and this is influencing the way parents treat staff at schools.
"If we don't treat teachers as the profession that they are then it's no surprised that some parents act the way they do.
"We know it's the minority of parents but it has a major impact on the wellbeing of staff."
Christopher says there needs to be a systematic change that can help support heads of schools.
Christopher said: "Schools are massively underfunding which is putting school leaders under increased pressure and causing tension between staff and parents.
"If more funding is pumped into the education system then I believe teachers, head teachers and the whole school community will be held up with respect they deserve."
NAHT says this kind of abusive behaviour is not tolerated in other industries and is calling for the government to send a clear signal to parents that it is unacceptable in schools.
It also wants ministers to conduct an urgent review of complaints procedures to deter vexatious use of the existing system by parents which can involve complaints being lodged with multiple agencies - sometimes before school processes have been exhausted.
Rayo Premium