Photo: ODT filesTeachers 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. 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. Walsh said he was also unhappy the Government had given principals and teachers just 26 hours to respond to the proposal after three years' of debate about the problem.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 23, 2020 22:07 UTC