A teacher with 28 years of experience, who developed PTSD after being abused by her own students and facing rape threats on a daily basis, said she has witnessed a massive rise in violent and sexual attacks in recent years, and believes Covid lockdowns are to blame.
Wendy Exton, 51, from Stoke-on-Trent, had been teaching 11 to 16-year-olds at an alternative provision school for around 10 years when she started noticing an alarming increase in school violence.
Over the next four years, she faced a tirade of mental and physical abuse from pupils who would spit on her and threaten to rape her.
Wendy was diagnosed with PTSD in September 2021 and felt she had no choice but to hand in her notice at the school, which has not been named to protect the students’ identities.
More than one in 10 teachers have been physically assaulted by a student in the last year, a survey by teachers’ union NASUWT revealed last month.
“You’ve got anything from shoving, spitting, punching, trying to trap you in places or trap your hand in doors,” said Wendy.
“There was one week when I went home and my arms were black and blue.
“I was mortified, I had to wear a long-sleeve top, otherwise people would think I’d been beaten.
“People don’t realise how extreme it can be.”
Wendy had always wanted to become a teacher to “make a difference” and completed a Masters degree in Special Educational Needs at the University of the West of England in Bristol.
She decided to work in alternative provision, a category reserved for children who do not thrive in traditional school settings, after a brief stint in mainstream education as a design and technology teacher.
“When I started out, it was amazing, I absolutely loved the job,” she said.
“Because I had done a Masters, I wanted to put it to good use.
“When I started out in teaching, behaviour wasn’t really an issue; it’s literally after the Covid lockdowns that it all became awful.”
One incident in particular sticks in Wendy’s mind, in which she was “scared to move”.
She said: “Two boys had cornered me near the classroom door whilst this girl was trying to kick out the window.
“I couldn’t get out of the door or call for help.
“I was scared to move for fear of what they might do to me.
“It’s almost embarrassing saying that because I’m not that sort of person, I’m not one of those teachers who kids run rings around.”
However, it was not just the physical abuse which pushed her to the limit.
“They would always latch on to some aspect of your appearance or it was sexualised, like they would threaten me with rape or some pornographic-style filth,” she said.
“I actually wrote it on the #MeToo website because I wanted people to realise that it’s not just directed towards female pupils but teachers as well.
“We had done so much work over the years on dealing with sexist behaviour and now it was just worse than ever.”
Despite Wendy having taught for nearly 30 years, the abuse reached a level she could no longer cope with.
“I couldn’t do it any more – I just had to go,” she said.
“It left me with a form of PTSD because I was waking up in the middle of the night and hearing shouting.
“It got that bad that it was affecting every aspect of my life.
“I can remember being in tears at the morning briefing and being like ‘I just can’t do this’.”
While there are many possible explanations for the sudden spike in aggressive behaviour among students, Wendy believes the Covid lockdowns are a key reason.
“Things were relatively calm and violent incidents were pretty rare but because of the Covid lockdowns and a management structure which wasn’t addressing abusive and violent behaviour, it has deteriorated massively,” she said.
“You’ve got children who have spent a long time at home without structure or boundaries.
“There were many kids who had unrestricted access to violent videos and online pornography.”
Another challenge faced by teachers since the global pandemic is to make sure students catch up on the years they spent outside the classroom during lockdown.
“You’ve now got 11/12-year-olds who are behaving like primary school kids because they’ve obviously missed out on years of formal education,” said Wendy.
“They just haven’t grown up or matured.
“We’ve never seen that before and it’s a totally different ball game now from what it used to be.”
There are a number of steps which teachers can take when they are faced with threatening or violent situations.
However, Wendy questions the effectiveness of some of those measures.
“You could call someone from the senior leadership team who would come and talk to the child,” said Wendy, who is now a National Executive Member for the NASUWT.
“But they would then either stay in your lesson or be removed and put back.
“Very rarely would a child be excluded.”
Teachers are also given training to deal with hostile situations, but this was not enough to help Wendy deal with aggressive students.
“We have what’s called Team Teach Training, which includes de-escalation and safe handling of kids,” said Wendy.
“But you’re not supposed to safely handle children that are above your shoulder height.”
The teacher accuses the academy system of shying away from exclusions as these figures are made public and could damage schools’ reputations.
She believes the Department for Education should come down harder on badly behaved pupils.
“If you implement a rigid behaviour policy there will be a couple of months where a lot of pupils are excluded,” she said.
“But then parents will put more pressure on them to behave and they will want to spent time with their mates.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: “No teacher should feel unsafe or face violence in the workplace.
“We are taking action to improve pupils’ behaviour through our £10 million Behaviour Hubs programme, which is supporting 700 schools to improve behaviour.
“We have also updated our Behaviour in Schools guidance to provide clear advice on how to create and maintain high standards.”
