(Norway) Violence "rising" among youngest students; a third of teachers threatened

Mar 20, 2019, News in English: Violence rising at primary schools https://www.newsinenglish.no/2019/03/20/violence-rising-at-primary-schools/ Armed police and emergency health care personnel responded swiftly to calls of a “threatening situation” involving a knife at a primary school in Oslo this week. Eight minutes later they had control of the suspect, a little boy who apparently was angry with his teacher. … It was just the latest example of violence at Norwegian schools, also now those with the youngest pupils. Brynseng School, one of Oslo’s newest and most modern, serves children in the first- to fourth grades. The assailant in this case was “extremely young,” police operations leader Sven Christian Lie told newspaper Aftenposten. He wouldn’t reveal the child’s age, but he was under 10. The little boy brandished a knife taken from the school kitchen Tuesday morning. He threatened his teacher with it and three others were injured when they attempted to intervene. They were taken to the local emergency clinic for treatment. … A new report confirms the incident was not unusual. Norway’s workplace regulatory agency Arbeidstilsynet has just recently surveyed 93 primary and junior high schools in southeastern Norway, and state broadcaster NRK reported on Wednesday that the findings were raising alarm: fully 90 percent of the schools lack routines to prevent violence and threats. School employees don’t receive training in how threatening situations can be warded off. School leaders don’t know how to use existing regulations to help. Another survey, conducted by the trade union federation in the education sector (Utdanningsforbund), also yielded sobering results: “The problems are the biggest in the primary schools,” federation leader Steffen Handal told NRK. “Teachers are subject to a rising degree of violence from pupils. We’ve seen incidents double from 2005 to 2018.” Fully a third of teachers questioned said they’d been subjected to violence or threats. “The schools try to impose measure but its random and there’s no evaluations of the risk situation in the employees’ work environment,” Trude Vollheim of the labour regulatory agency told NRK….