PARENTS 'TURNING CHILDREN TO BULLIES'

From the Herald Express
07 May 2007

A former Torquay school head has warned colleagues that bad parents are turning their children into bullies who abuse their teachers.David Gray, who retired last year as head of Babbacombe Primary School but is a life member of the National Association of Head Teachers, was speaking at the union's annual conference in Bournemouth.Mr Gray retired at Christmas after 22 years, saying he hoped to find part-time work as a lorry driver instead.He said at the time that the dramatic job swap would be a welcome change from the daily stresses he faced.At the conference he said that by failing to instil discipline at home, parents are giving their children the green light to target teachers with abuse. Youngsters who are allowed to stay up late watching television in their rooms come into school too tired to work or behave properly.Delegates passed a series of motions warning of a rising tide of violence and disruption in the classroom.Mr Gray said: "More and more parents, rather than punishing pupils for swearing at staff, are colluding with them."Teachers have come to expect that parents will constantly refer to their "rights" and their children's rights when schools discipline pupils for bad behaviour, he said.And they fail to discipline their own children or set traditional rules at home."This lack of discipline at home is leading to a growing number of pupils, and especially girls, intimidating their teachers with sexist taunts."Boys don't just try to peer down young women teachers' fronts, they make comments on what they see," he said.If a young male teacher is single, he is labelled as having "something wrong with him".Mr Gray added: "This is a horrible form of bullying. This is the meltdown of society's civilised values."He said increasing numbers of children were turning up to school too tired to concentrate because they had been up watching television late at night.Some were hungry because they had not had any breakfast - or occasionally any dinner the night before - because no-one thought to make them any food."Many children live in their bedrooms and are allowed to stay up as late as they like as long as they do not disturb the rest of the family," he said.Schools are trying to pick up the pieces of a "dysfunctional upbringing" for many children, he said.Rona Tutt, former NAHT president, said the number of attacks on pupils and staff was "increasing substantially"."The extreme end of behaviour has not had the attention it deserves," she said.The union passed a motion which called for more specialist facilities for teaching the children with serious behavioural disorders.