NewsHub 24 July 2020
Teachers are disappointed the Government has made only minimal changes to their right to use force to restrain students despite years of debate over the topic.
They say schools are struggling to cope with increasing violence from their students and they need clearer rules.
hey are also angry the Government has given them just hours to respond to its proposals, which were in a supplementary order paper included in the Education and Training Bill that was passed by Parliament earlier this week.
The main change was to extend teachers’ right to use force to situations where they fear a child will cause emotional distress, not just physical harm, to themselves or others.
Principals’ Federation president Perry Rush said it was not clear that the changes would “de-cloy” the rules so they were easy to understand and gave teachers sufficient freedom to act when they needed to.
“In an instance of violence in the classroom, the teacher is called upon to act immediately,” he said.
“So there is no time for a teacher to be thinking through a criteria. It needs to be something they call on their professional knowledge and professional judgement in the moment.”
READ MORE: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/teachers-disappointed-with-government-changes-to-to-physical-force-rules.html
