Violence inside our schools

Tuesday. April 10.
The Saudi Gazette

Sabria S. Jawhar


Schools should be a safe and secure place not only for students but also for teachers, and staff members. Without the feeling of security, teachers wouldn’t be able to carry out their mission of teaching and shaping their students’ personalities.

However, recently, a series of cases of student violence against teachers have been reported by the local media in a shocking way. Those reports indicate a dramatic increase in violence inside our schools which arise serious concerns about challenges to the authority of teachers and educational institutions.

When intermediate school students, for instance, knock down and kick their teacher inside the class room till he falls unconscious , we have to investigate the reasons and question the environment inside that particular school.

underestimating the phenomenon and calling it “rare”, as some officials from the ministry of education did, is unacceptable. Some officials went as far as looking for excuses and explanations for the students’ bad behavior of assaulting their teachers.

How could they assume that the number of cases is limited while the reality is that we don’t even have figures for them? If they do, why didn’t they reveal them.

What is worse is that those officials failed even to provide concrete measures to prevent violence and protect teachers' authority and educational rights in the future.

They did not even bother themselves condemning it or talking about the possible punishments for that particular group of students.

It is well-known, though, that some directors refuse to report violent incidents inside their schools to education authorities thinking that this would ruin their reputation and make them look bad. But what have we done about those cases that have been already talked about in the media?

Given the long-standing tradition of reverence for teachers and of respect for the institutions of education throughout the Saudi history, those incidents in which students attacked their teachers should be viewed as a major change in both the society and the concept of education. They should not be overlooked and more focus should be placed on conducting scientific research about them. Overlooking and considering them as rare will help in nothing but increasing their occurrence and turning our schools into dangerous places. Speak not about the possible produced generation.

This is not to single out Saudi schools form those in the rest of the world. Actually, in 2006, the number of reported attacks against teachers in England reached 221cases. Roughly, a teacher falls victim to a serious assault every single working day.

Does this mean that we should let those cases go as an international phenomenon? The answer is definitely No.

Our students have to be made to understand that the law applies inside the school gates just the same as outside. It should be clear that violent attacks against teachers are completely unacceptable and must be prosecuted.

We need to take strong action where there's serious violence against teachers. Schools should be given the right to take tough action to remove or prosecute any student who is behaving in an aggressive way.

Sentencing guidelines should be issued to make it a more serious offence to assault school staff inside or outside the establishment.
There should be social workers or psychiatrists in those schools where children seem to be damaged or poorly socialized in order to help them to cope in a school environment.

Teachers should not be the only ones who take the blame for parental failure especially with the absence of effective disciplinary sanctions to support them.

Its true that some teachers are exaggerating in their use of authority the thing that might make children victims of violence and abuse. But this could be attributed to the lack of adequate training to deal with behavior difficulties of students and should call for more training for teachers. Simply the teacher’s power of discipline in our schools should not be a paper tiger.