Almost 1,300 violent incidents in Highland schools so far this year

Almost 1,300 violent incidents have been reported in schools across the Highland Council area in the current school year alone, statistics revealed by the Scottish Liberal Democrats have shown.

David Green, the party’s candidate at the next Holyrood election for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, is worried about “pupils are going to school afraid” and is calling for greater resources to combat violence in schools.

According to freedom of information requests submitted by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, 1137 incidents in primary schools and 155 incidents in secondary schools have already occurred across Highland in this academic year. In the year previous, a total of 2140 incidents were recorded.  

The intervention comes as the new TV drama, Adolescence, has reignited a debate about violence in schools and the rise of toxic misogynists. The drama follows a family whose lives are torn apart when their teenage son is arrested for murdering a female classmate.

However, concerns about behaviour in schools have been growing since the Covid-19 pandemic. The deterioration of behaviour was confirmed in a Scottish Government-commissioned study, the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR). 

The study found more than one in ten primary school support staff said they had encountered use of weapons in incidents between pupils in the classroom in the last week, prompting the Scottish Government to publish a long-awaited action plan last summer.

Scotland’s largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), has continued to campaign vigorously for additional resources for education to help address the growing problem.

David Green, the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, said:

“It is deeply troubling that pupils are going to school afraid. School should be a safe place of learning and opportunity, not a place to fear. 

“I have spoken with teachers who have felt abandoned in the classroom, fearing for both their safety and that of their pupils. That is beynd the pale, we must have their back.

“While I recognise the plan published by the Scottish Government last summer, these statistics suggest current efforts are falling short of the practical effect needed.

“To give pupils the best environment to learn, we need to support teachers with the resources they need. 

“They need more specialist provision, such as classroom assistants and educational psychologists, alongside action to cut waits for child and adolescent mental health services.”

ENDS

Notes to editors: 

Highland confirmed that figures from 2018/19 to 2022/23 only represent where an incident led to an exclusion. They further confirmed that "A new reporting system was designed and implemented towards the end of the 2022/23 session to make it much easier for staff to report incidents, and staff have been encouraged to report everything, however minor" and this system was in use for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 to date figures. 

The number of violent incident reports recorded, by academic year:

*2024/25 figures run up to 11th February 2025.