Middle and high school teachers plan to strike for one hour on Tuesday morning in protest of violence against teachers. The nationwide strike will take place from 8 to 9 a.m. Tuesday; schools will open at 9.
The strike will affect grades 7-12.
The strike was called following two violent attacks on teachers in under one week. Both attacks were carried out by students' parents.
On Friday, a student's father hit a worker in his son's school in southern Israel. The father had a history of violence and a court order forbidding him to enter the school.
On Monday, the father of an eleventh-grade student attacked his daughter's principal after the principal decided that the girl could not accompany her class on a field trip due to inappropriate attire. The principal managed to escape during the attack, but was later hospitalized for head and neck pains.
Secondary School Teachers Association head Ran Erez accused the Education Ministry of “populism,” saying the ministry failed to prevent violence against teachers, attempting instead to please students and parents by refraining from demanding a minimum standard of behavior.
Before the most recent elections, the union wrote up a standard code of behavior for students, Erez said. The code included guidelines for proper dress, speech, and behavior in school, he said. However, the code was never published, “apparently because it did not appeal to potential voters,” he concluded.