Drunken pupils drive teacher out of town

A Teacher has revealed she has moved towns to avoid meeting drunk pupils on the streets near her home at night.

The teacher, who works at a Burnley secondary school and has moved to Accrington, also said children as young as 11 were regularly turning up to lessons hung over.

Her comments come after an exclusive Evening Telegraph investigation revealed that in the last three years more than 350 East Lancashire children 100 of them under 11 had been rushed to hospital emergency departments suffering the effects of drinking.

A teaching union chief said while he was not aware of children turning up to class hung over, the statistics released under the Freedom of Information Act were "scary".
continued...

The experienced teacher, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of further trouble, has two teenage children of her own.

She said: "We have got a lot of children at school who regularly drink and that is during the week as well as weekends.

"They even tell us that their parents buy them the alcohol. They all drink alcopops and you can't teach them some days."

She said the state of some of her pupils was "terrible" and added: "It all comes from the parents. Some are alcoholics and drug addicts and they are not showing their children any kind of example.

"Underage drinking is a massive problem and it is teachers like me who have to deal with it. You get some as young as 11 who are hung over in class.

"In the end I had to move out of Burnley with my husband because there were kids who found out where I lived and they would go rampaging down the street."

She said that she thought part of the problem was the different drinking culture in England now.

She added: "When I was young pubs were places where only older people went but now that is different. Pubs are always full with young people and it is seen as acceptable and a part of growing up to get very drunk."

Les Turner, Lancashire secretary of the National Association of Headteachers which represents more than 700 heads, deputies and assistant heads said: "I can put my hand on my heart say not one of our members has ever contacted the union complaining or asking for advice as one of their children has come into class suffering from the effects of alcohol abuse.

"But those A&E figures are scary. "In schools, as part of the governments Every Child Matters initiative, children look at how to be responsible and keep safe, including the issue of drug abuse and nicotine and alcohol the most abused drug in society. It is now considered socially unacceptable to smoke in public places and it would be nice if when people are smashed out of their heads people take the same view.

"But at all levels of society we drink too much."

This Is Lancashire