Violence on rise at schools across Lothian

TEACHERS and staff in the Lothians are being subjected to violence by pupils every school day, it has been revealed.

New figures show employees in East Lothian schools were the victims of 226 "violent incidents" in 2008/2009.

They also reveal that 65 attacks were carried out on teachers working in Midlothian schools, and reported incidents doubled to 108 this academic year at West Lothian schools.

This comes after an Evening News investigation revealed on Monday that assaults on staff in the Capital were running at more than three every day, including 17 violent incidents in council-run nurseries.

Liz Smith MSP, Conservative spokeswoman for children, schools and skills in the Scottish Parliament, said: "We need radical measures to improve discipline in our schools and when it comes to persistently unruly pupils, we need to take them out of mainstream education and teach them in separate Second Chance Centres until they learn to refocus their lives."

She added: "Violent and aggressive behaviour in the classroom is unacceptable."