The GMB union investigation has unveiled a shocking extent of abuse directed at school support staff.
Members have reported intolerable levels of abuse at work – reflecting FOI findings that showed 3,200 reports of threats and violence in Ayrshire alone in a single year..
Some endured threats of violence from pupils as young as five. Workers, supporting pupils with additional needs, said management do not understand the scale of the crisis because victims are not given time or encouragement to report incidents.
Meanwhile, they say, many of the incidents that are reported lead to little or no action being taken.
One staff member told how she and her colleagues had to start wearing hats because one pupil was pulling their hair out by the roots, adding: “Once he pounced on me and took hold of the back of my head and pulled me down to the ground.
“It took four staff to try to distract him and pry his hands loose but meanwhile he was pushing me away with his foot and pulling my head the opposite way.
“He then bit me on the head and pulled a whole chunk of my hair out.”
Another PSA told how their nose had been broken by a pupil while a colleague is waiting for an MRI scan for a wrist injury.
Another said she is covered in bruises while a colleague has been left with permanent bald spots after her hair was pulled out.
A pupil support worker told how she is receiving counselling and is on medication for stress and anxiety after being attacked by a first year pupil.
She said: “I am still struggling to go into work every day. Even now most classes are awful with table and chairs being upturned, I ask them to stop as does the teacher but when I try phoning for help, nobody comes.
“I do love doing my job when the children are keen to get help but it can be an awful place to work and I’m very scared.
Another said: “I have personally been punched in the face, kicked, hit with objects, had chairs thrown at me, had rocks thrown at me. I have been touched inappropriately by a child. I have been grabbed around the neck. I have witnessed other staff being repeatedly hit and kicked, hair pulled. I have seen colleagues being whipped by plastic cables, plastic skipping ropes.”
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