'Conspiracy of silence' over school attacks means violence now 'out of control'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A “conspiracy of silence” on violence in schools has allowed the problem to spiral out of control. MSP Willie Rennie claimed education bosses and government ministers are not prepared to admit the scale of the crisis.He spoke out after a horrific video emerged of an attack on a schoolgirl in his constituency.

He said the disturbing image of a young girl being kicked in the face would stay with him “forever”.Footage of the brutal attack on the young pupil at Waid Academy in Anstruther, Fife, shows the girl lying on the floor trying to cover her head as she is repeatedly punched and kicked twice in the head.Now Rennie, the Lib Dems’ Scottish education spokesman, has backed the Daily Record’s Our Kids...

Our Future campaign, accusing politicians and ­education chiefs of ignoring the problem for too long.Writing in today’s Daily Record, Rennie said: “The image of one young girl kicking another in her face will stay with me, probably forever.“The level of violence in schools has always been higher than acceptable but it has been so much worse since the pandemic.

Almost universally, staff report an increase in distressed behaviour since ­children have returned from months of lockdown. “There does appear to be a conspiracy of silence and of under-reporting among the Scottish political and education leadership who cannot admit the severity of the problems or that the current approach is just not working.” Rennie backed our campaign for more resources to be put into community activities for young people.He said: “I am a liberal and I believe in tackling the root causes of behaviour rather than simply punishing the symptoms, so I support inclusion and the restorative approach adopted in Scottish education.“But that does not mean