ACT’s Henry unveils plan allowing teachers to use 'reasonable force'

ACT wants to give teachers the legal power to remove "seriously or persistently disruptive" students from a classroom. The party's new policy would allow teachers to send disruptive students to a supervised space and staff would be protected when using a "reasonable and proportionate" intervention to prevent harm or destruction of property. Announcing the policy in Auckland on Sunday, ACT candidate Paul Henry said the law would give teachers clear legal protections and the power to regain "order" in the classroom. "Let's be honest, there are a lot of little sh*** in classrooms, and we need to address that if we're going to lift education standards. "Teachers need to know they're respected [and] they need to know the law is actually on their side." ACT would "clarify" the boundaries already set under Section 99 of the Education and Training Act 2020 so teachers know what is permitted and are protected when they act reasonably. Henry said teachers would be allowed to use "reasonable force" in specific circumstances, but denied "corporal punishment" would be allowed. "We can't have the situation where that line is blurred. This has nothing to do with corporal punishment. This has nothing to do with punishing the child who is the problem." The current guidelines allow school staff to physically restrain students as a last resort to prevent harm. The method must also be "reasonable and proportionate". Asked how the policy was different from the current guidelines, Henry said his party would be "very specific what that behaviour the teacher can use is". "The ambiguity that exists at the moment means many teachers just can't even face the prospect of doing it. They will take the easy road out, and the easy road out is a long way away from easy or preferable." ACT would make it so assaulting a teacher, staff member or student would cause an immediate removal and mandatory stand-down or suspension. Serious assaults would be referred to Police Youth Aid. Parents would be required to get involved when behaviour became serious or repeated, and could be held liable for deliberate property damage caused by their child. If a parent failed to attend a mandatory meeting without a reasonable excuse they could be fined up to $300 for a first offence and up to $3000 for subsequent offences. Parents may also be held financially responsible for the cost of deliberate property damage caused by their child at school, which could be recoverable as a debt if unpaid. Henry said parents were part of the solution. "The expectation with the parents is that they show - or guardians - up at school, and so they are engaged with the school [and] we are engaged with them. "There are parents that presumably just don't give a damn so they're the ones that will be fined. The parents that do give a damn but don't know what to do and need help, we'll engage with them and we'll help them - we will not fine them.” [Missing Credit]Labour's Ginny Andersen says there are already clear processes in place for dealing with students. Photo: RNZ Classrooms would be less safe - Labour Labour education spokesperson Ginny Andersen told RNZ that teachers, parents and student deserved to feel safe at school — but ACT's policy would do the opposite. "This policy will just make classrooms less safe by letting potentially untrained staff physically drag students out of the room. "This is not the sort of education system that New Zealand wants or needs... our teachers are there to teach, and their job should be to do that, not to physically restrain children." Andersen said there was already a clear process in place. "My real concern is for parents of children who need additional learning support for their kids, and they can't properly access learning support now and we should be looking about how we support learning, not how we further restrain children." She said Henry using "little sh***" to describe misbehaving children was unacceptable. "It's not appropriate, and it's yet another example of the coalition lowering standards, and New Zealanders are quite frankly sick of it." Fining parents for their children's behaviour would not solve the issue, she believed. "It's really important that parents do engage constructively with their school and talk about how their child's progressing but just increasing penalties and fines on one side of that relationship means it just won't work." [Missing Credit]