Papers for the Fife Council Education Scrutiny Committee on school violence have just been released, and have shown that violent incidents have exponentially increased from 1221 in 2017 to 2985. Fife Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Councillor Aude Boubaker-Calder is dismayed at the figures and is calling for urgent action to resolve the issue.

Boubaker-Calder has said, “It is simply not acceptable that there are two and a half times more violent incidents in Fife’s schools last year compared to in 2017. Just the two first months of this year are already totalling 639 incidents. There is clearly a crisis in our schools.

“The recent incident in Waid Academy is just the tip of the iceberg and I am worried it will get worse if nothing is done.

“I spoke about this at the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference on Saturday where we called for more resources and support for teachers to tackle the problem with violence.

“I personally was bullied at school both physically and mentally during my whole education and I have seen teachers been verbally assaulted during that time as well. I would hate to see my daughter have to endure the same because governments at all level cannot put a priority in those issues. 

“The Scottish Government needs to provide the tools and resources to local authorities. This includes cutting waiting time for Mental Health support, funding for teachers, school psychotherapists and classroom assistant and providing the right policies. The Council needs to provide with better policies as well and support for schools to prevent, tackle those issues from the roots and ensure that schools put in place an adequate network of supports and tools for not only the teachers and the school staff but the pupils as well including the perpetrators. 

“Doing nothing is not acceptable. And the numbers presented are showing this. We must act now to ensure our young people can be educated in the environment where they can flourish in the best version of themselves. For the sake of the teachers, the staff and the pupils and the future education of my daughter, I won’t rest until this is properly addressed”