Head defends special pupils

7:00pm Monday 26th June 2006

A HEADTEACHER insists there is no comparison between the actions of pupils with special needs and those at mainstream schools.

Freedom of Information statistics released during an investigation by the Evening Telegraph revealed 72 of the area's teachers were assaulted by pupils in the year to March.

Broadfield School in Oswaldtwistle, which teachers pupils with severe and complex special needs such as autism, made it on to the list after one of its 116 pupils bit a teacher.

But head Jane White insisted: "Staff understand that the behaviours of some of our complex children are as a result of their special needs.

"We therefore cannot compare their behaviour to those pupils who are violent, deliberately disruptive and who choose to attack staff."