A former Dundee maths teacher who won an appeal against his sentence for assaulting two pupils is calling for CCTV to be installed in schools.
Mike Barile (52) had his criminal record all but wiped clean by the High Court in Edinburgh last week after judges replaced his previous admonition with an absolute discharge.
This brought to an end almost two years of legal proceedings and disciplinary hearings over two charges of assaulting pupils.
He told The Courier the education system was doing youngsters “no favours” by failing to teach them about civilised behaviour and that it was vital teachers and pupils were protected from unruly behaviour.
“There are two things I think could be done to address the issue of discipline in the classroom — install CCTV in schools and also introduce detention on Saturday mornings,” he said.
“They wouldn’t necessarily require teachers to be present on these mornings, they could recruit job seekers, but once the youngsters were sent to detention that alone would stop them.
“Classroom teachers refer kids up through the system, but head teachers have their hands tied — there has to be some kind of sanction that’s unpleasant, something that pupils don’t particularly want to do.”
Mr Barile was convicted in December 2008 of assaulting two pupils, both 15 at the time, at Dundee’s Lawside Academy.
He and his family were subjected to abuse and property was vandalised in the wake of the convictions, but on Thursday he said he was delighted common sense had prevailed.
An out-of-court settlement was also reached with the city council earlier this month, just days before Mr Barile’s employment tribunal had been due to start.
He said that while people might criticise the installation of CCTV and brand it an invasion of privacy, this was the reality of the world in which we now live.
“If it means it’s for the greater good then it’s worthwhile. It’s protection for everyone — for the kids and for teachers in the room.”
“Ordinary, well-behaved pupils would have absolutely nothing to fear and neither would any teacher worth his or her salt.
“The only people who would be worried are teachers who aren’t up to scratch and youngsters with something to hide.”
While Mr Barile’s settlement prevents him from discussing the incident at Lawside, he remains outspoken about the practices in schools for disciplining pupils.
One example he gave was about swearing in the classroom, which is now commonplace and, if not directed at someone in particular, it is overlooked.
He argues there is no longer a zero-tolerance attitude towards bad behaviour, but says he does not blame the youngsters.
He said, “We are doing these youngsters no favours because once they leave school and they go out into the world no one will tolerate this kind of behaviour.”
Judges hearing Mr Barile’s appeal against his sentence in Edinburgh granted him an absolute discharge which, although technically he will still have a criminal record, he does not have to declare and can now pursue new occupations that might otherwise have been barred to him.
It has already opened up the way to a new career in charity work with Dundee United.
His sacking sparked a debate about classroom discipline and, after news of his settlement Scotland’s largest teaching union, the Education Institute of Scotland, said school staff should be given greater protection from unruly pupils.