Attacks on teachers by kids on rise - primary teachers' union

Primary school teachers are turning up at school with ever-increasing odds they'll be kicked, bitten or punched by damaged kids. That's the sobering finding of a study just released by the teachers' union - the NZEI. The survey, carried out for the union by an Australian associate professor of psychology Phil Riley, relies on data from more than a thousand principals and deputies from around New Zealand who agreed to take part. It found that more than 30 percent had been attacked a number of times in the past three years - mostly by students, but in some cases by parents. The union president Lynda Stuart says the rate was higher for women principals, with about 48 percent reporting attacks in the past year. She says in most cases the violence involves children harmed by meth, foetal alcohol syndrome, and other problems.