'School is supposed to be a safe sanctuary'

Photo / Martin Sykes

Teachers need the power to search students as schools become increasingly violent, secondary principals say.

The call comes after yesterday's stabbing of a teacher at Te Puke High School in the Bay of Plenty.

Steve Hose, 53, the popular head of the mathematics department, was about to start class at 11am with his Year 9 students when one of them, a 13-year-old boy, attacked him with a 10cm kitchen knife.

He was stabbed twice in the back of his neck and twice in the shoulder.

Secondary Principals Association president Patrick Walsh said while it was not common for students to arm themselves, there have been reports of students bringing knives and hammers to school.

Speaking to nzherald.co.nz, he said school principals were worried about the legal implications of searching students under the New Zealand Bill of Rights.

"It is a very difficult area and one that has not been tested in the High Court," Mr Walsh said.

"Schools are really caught in a legal limbo," he said.

Mr Walsh said schools were responsible for the health and safety of students and teachers but reliant on police to conduct searches of students that they believed could have drugs or alcohol.

"But they're very busy and you don't want to have to call police every time you have a suspicion," Mr Walsh said.

A spokesman for Education Minister Anne Tolley said the issue had never been raised by the Secondary Principals Association, despite the minister meeting the group as recently as last week.

He said the association should raise the issue with the Minister. Asked if the Minister was looking into the issue, the spokesman said the Minister was on a flight but he would get back to nzherald.co.nz once she had landed.

Kate Gainsford, national president of the Post Primary Teachers Association, yesterday said she was shocked by the Te Puke attack.

"It raises the same issues it has raised before and unfortunately, as far as I can see, there are the same unsatisfactory answers to questions raised the last time there was a stabbing."

A behaviour summit in March last year involving psychiatrists, social workers, teachers, youth workers and police led to a behaviour action plan being released.

But Ms Gainsford said little progress was made because the plan didn't address early intervention.

She wanted to see schools having access to clinical psychologists so students could be referred to experts rather than teachers who dealt with issues that really required specialist intervention.

This morning she told Radio New Zealand: "School is supposed to be a safe sanctuary," she said.

"There's some serious work required."

Education Minister Anne Tolley today said the $45 million action plan launched last year was helping reduce disruptive behaviour.

'Completely out of the blue'

Students at Te Puke High School said Mr Hose had yelled at the rest of his class to get out after he was attacked.

"It just happened completely out of the blue," said a girl in the classroom at the time.

"Mr Hose was moving towards the front of the class and there was a lot of blood dripping everywhere ... He [the boy] was following him. Mr Hose told us to get out, so we did."

Western Bay of Plenty police area commander Inspector Mike Clement said the boy dropped the knife in the classroom before he left. He was caught shortly afterwards.

Mr Hose remained conscious as other teachers and students went to his aid.

"I think it would be hard to describe it as anything other than a very vicious attack," said Mr Clement. "I mean, four stab wounds to the neck and shoulder on anybody is vicious."

A teaching colleague attended to Mr Hose's wounds but he was still bleeding heavily and in pain when St John paramedics arrived.

Mr Clement said the boy - who because of his age cannot be charged with a criminal offence - had been co-operative with police who questioned him.

Last night, he was in police custody but is to go to a Child, Youth and Family caregiver pending a family conference.

Mr Clement would not comment on the boy's background.

Shocked students said Mr Hose, a Te Puke High teacher for eight years, was well liked.

"I heard from one of my mates about it and thought,'You're all s***', and then we saw the ambulance pull up," said one boy, who gave his first name as Brent.

Te Puke High principal Alan Liddle said the stabbing was the first he had seen in 16 years of teaching in the Western Bay.

He said Victim Support and a traumatic response team from Group Special Education had been in to offer support to the affected students and at least seven teachers.

Mr Liddle said the school would look at improving its security. "We need to learn what's happened here and we need to put steps in place."

Mr Hose was discharged from Tauranga Hospital early yesterday evening.

Assaults on teachers * 238 students were stood down in 2008 for physical assaults on teachers.

* 442 teachers needed treatment after assaults at school during 2008 and 2009, costing $413,000.

* The most expensive individual claim was for $124,000.

* In March last year, 17-year-old Tae Won Chung stabbed teacher David Warren in the back in front of 20 other students at Avondale College. He was jailed for 18 months and ordered to pay $10,000 to his victim.

(Source: Ministry of Education and ACC) - With NZPA