To ask how any non-violent child in Scotland manages to function at this point

[CurdinHenry]

The law now essentially prevents any intervention when an under 18 commits an offence

So we've got violent crime going completely unchecked (indeed it's rewarded with extra visits and promises of "resources" for the perpetrator). It's scary for adults but at least we can try to keep our distance in a (thankfully) ageing population.

How the fuck do kids who have to sit shut in a room with unchecked psychos handle it? Never mind the threat, which must be terrifying, but how do they process how unfair it is? How did we as adults let this total bullshit happen? Obviously blame Nicola sturgeon for yet another woke fuck up.

The Scottish Government has been certainly keen on "all behavior is communication" and "restorative chats" and all that jazz.
Tbf recent guidance has stepped back from the most extreme interpretations a little and reasserted that "consequences" are OK.
How seriously schools (and individual teachers) have taken it has always varied.

I have mixed feelings on it.
I think some of the more touchy-feely practices are appropriate for children who might be neurodiverse or experiencing genuine trauma responses.
But less appropriate for ordinary children who sometimes choose to be naughty just for the sake of it.

DD is very much the later type and quickly worked out that she could say something like "I don't know what happened- a red mist just descended" and avoid consequences.
I would then be called into handwringing meetings about what-on-earth could be behind her mysterious behavior problems.
I cautiously suggested that they punish her and they looked at like I had two heads!
Eventually I put some consequences in place at home and the troublesome behavior problems magically resolved themselves.

Mind you, I've sat through a "restorative conversation" with DS and it was excruciatingly awkward. I think I'd prefer a detention!

Despite some of this silliness, and with all sympathy to anyone who's kids are really suffering, I wouldn't quite characterize Scottish schools as rooms full of unchecked psychos.

DS is at a secondary school in a pretty mixed area. They seem to keep order relatively well. Whether that's because of, or in spite of government guidance I wouldn't like to say!
But he's never really felt unsafe. Not in the ASL unit (alongside kids with genuine social, emotional and behavioral needs) or in the mainstream classes (alongside ordinary neds).

That’s crazy! My teenag boy who by the way is not awful or capable of anything as per the op and based in Scotland is 6 foot 6 if he was in a violent rage (not likely) how would a teacher stop him?
to be honest I have not seen a particular rise in violence in teenagers in the city or the inner city school my son goes to. It has its issues but they are not new they are just advertised more on social media than in the past. I remember teams of fighting football casuals and lots of violence in the 90s. I remember chairs being launched in classrooms and drug deals in the playground at break in the 90s too.

Schools are going down the toilet and the SNP are sitting back and letting it happen. They are focussed on all the wrong things and spending money on the wrong things, e.g. independence and free school bags.
Money should be spent on helping schools with more experienced staff and bringing back consequences for being a thug. No child should go to school and worry about being beaten up and knowing that the perpetrator is going to get off without any punishment.

I don’t think it’s just Scotland. There is major chaos in Middlesborough. The gangs are recruiting kids as young as 9, and no one, schools, social services, or the police, knows what to do. 🙄

Honestly I think specialist provision is the answer. We have diversionary programmes that are for children who cannot manage in mainstream schools, ND and behaviour and poverty are particularly prevalent and they are small, local and very much skills focussed.

Other ND children and other children who struggle to regulate but do and all other children affected by poor behaviour should not be the ones who are pushed out and not considered in these responses. Everyone needs to be considered and safety for the people affected by the behaviour should be a top priority and concern. At the moment this pushed to the bottom.

I work in a fairly challenging Edinburgh high school.
I can confirm that the loonies are taking over the asylum.
The feral kids and their bampot parents have no accountability.

I’m not going to comment on the political stuff as I can’t be arsed but I will say I do agree there’s a massive problem in this country. In our area the massive cuts to classroom assistants and SEN teachers has had a huge knock on effect. Schools can’t cope, teachers can’t teach. I had to move my son’s primary school as there was just never a break from these kids. One of the teachers in the school was so fed up of not being able to teach because of these children that she just walked out one day.
Parents are also a massive issue. And not just because of economic instability or substance abuse problems. I’ve met affluent parents who simply refuse to believe their child is problematic. One parent posted photos of her child’s scratch wounds on a parenting group and asked how to stop another child from hurting hers. Failed to mention they were defensive wounds from her child attacking mine! The same child that kicked my child in the head while another one held him down! How do you counter delusion like that. I’m the first to admit when one of my children has done wrong and work with whoever I need to to resolve it. The same cannot be said for many parents.
When there are no consequences for these children legally, in education or at home then how can we ever expect them to learn.

One of the reasons I strongly support corporal punishment

Yeah because that was never abused

Honestly?

Give not two fucks about these violent thugs. My priority is my own kids, not boo-hooing over some children being dragged up by addict parents who think education is for mugs.

Get the poor little unfortunate souls into a PRU or List D school and keep them away from the majority.

But surely the current solution isn't working either?

In an ideal world I would set up exceptional schools for children like that, state-funded. Instilling pride in their achievements, even the tiniest ones - like proper dress in the morning when lining up, etc. etc. And drill, drill, baby, drill - all the sciences, compulsory music, amazing PE (fencing, horse-riding, NOT boxing, NOT rugby, but some form of wrestling). At the same time they would be punished severely for any misdemeanour, even minor, not physically, but loss of privileges, extra duties as punishment and placement in a military-style detention facility as a last resort before final expulsion. Sort of like Sandhurst or whatever it is called.

From what I can see the schools in the posher areas seem less well set up to deal with the issues when they arise. There’s a lot of deprivation in the catchment of my DCs school and this doesnt seem to be a significant issue.

That's because they are as thick as mince. Too many in Scotland DON'T vote and these zealots are so bloody minded.

What year was this? Expulsion is almost an impossibility in Scotland.

2012/2013 only had 21 children expelled.
this reduced to one expulsion in 2022/2023.

And there were 0 children expelled in Scotland in 2024/2025.

The SNP are not sitting back and letting it happen. THEY caused it in the first place

Aaahh, so you are partly to blame for voting for this shambolic, inept government.
For shame 😣

Hello from an English person

What changed? Is this a change in school policy or a change in criminal law or both?
The age of criminal responsibility is still 12 as it is across the UK? So it is more the way this is being policed by matter of policy choices rather than change in law?

I was in Edinburgh last week and while I had a lovely time, I did notice a few sets of young men on illegal high powered ebikes with balaclavas on Potterow. I do live in central London so it's not that I have never seen it before but I would say they looked quite a bit younger than the usual types doing that in central London. Couldn't see their faces but they seemed quite small.

Did you make a stage 2 formal complaint?

Are any Edinburgh high schools exempt from that? My friend has several kids at James Gillespie and no issues

You are so right. I heard many times from people who live in the worst Scottish postcode (near Silverburn), Nitshill - that they would rather 'eat grass' but vote for independence - they understand they will have to eat grass when the UK stops supporting them financially - but they still vote for the SNP. I visit regularly (have family there) and come away depressed - a person's body was found, set alight, in the Househill park (Nitshill), the roads from Darnley to the airport are so strewn with rubbish - it flows in the wind, and the guests at a Climate Summit in Glasgow were driven from the airport to the city centre along the road filled with fly-tipped fridges, sofas, etc. Yet they vote for the SNP, because of independence. They see only one thing - they don't care if children perish neglected in their pursuit for independence.

Shambolic? Inept? Fucking corrupt and criminal to its core! Utter scum.

I can’t imagine how the poor kids cope with having to attend school with the threat of violence from their classmates hanging over them. Why is it that as an adult we can call the police and get someone who hurts us arrested and charged yet children have no protection?

Yes why are kids told to put up with it? It’s not right.

Many people have both male and female teenage children and would definitely disagree that "teenage boys are unpleasant". Some are. So are some girls. But sexist/racist/homophobic statements are always unpleasant.
And 50% of the population are teenage boys at some point,