More than 500 pupils have been excluded from schools across Dumfries and Galloway in the last two years.
A Freedom of Information request has broken down causes for exclusion across the academic years ending in summer 2022 and 2023.
In total 552 pupils were excluded across the two years.
Verbal abuse of staff was the biggest factor with 122 cases in 2022 rising to 143 this year.
In 2023, three schoolchildren were excluded for “malicious communications against staff”, seven for substance abuse not relating to alcohol and two for fire raising.
Andrew O’ Halloran, regional secretary of the teachers’ union EIS, said: “Sadly, violence and aggression have grown exponentially since the pandemic, which followed a lost decade underinvestment.
“Worryingly, the problem is particularly acute in the primary sector.
“The EIS has been engaging with Dumfries and Galloway Council to try to resolve some of the underlying issues but there is a fundamental need for better resourcing and staffing in education across the country.
“Council officers must make this explicit to elected members. Nurture approaches and restorative practice can have a positive impact on pupil behaviour but only if they are supported by adequate training and resources and with real consequences for poor behaviour in place.”
In the academic year ending in this summer 51 pupils were excluded for damaging school property, 98 for physical assault with a weapon against another student, 48 for assault with a weapon against staff and 41 for fighting.
In the academic year 2021/22 281 pupils recorded temporary exclusions with 271 the following year.
The figures were released as Unison said school support staff experienced most abuse from pupils.
The government’s Behaviour in Scottish Schools 2023 research report shows that 86 per cent of support staff encounter low level disruptive behaviour every day, with 66 per cent experiencing verbal abuse and 59 per cent experiencing physical aggression on a regular basis.
Unison Scotland regional manager, Kay Sillars said: “Unison have consistently raised violence and abuse of school support staff with employers and government.
“Most support staff experience difficult behaviour every day. It is not acceptable, now that we have the evidence to back up what we know is a growing problem we need to see government funding and action to help schools deal with it.
“Support staff need to be provided with training, support and time to fully participate in developing strategies to support the pupils they are working with.
“But we also need increased investment in youth clubs, family social work and educational psychiatrists. UNISON are raising these findings with the government.”
Education secretary Jenny Gilruth announced in December that £900,000 of cash for councils to help train school staff to deal with “the new challenges in our schools post-Covid”.
Ms Gilruth, told MSPs: “Let me be clear – violence in Scotland’s schools is unacceptable.
“It is unacceptable for the staff in our schools and for the young people we entrust in their care.
“It is essential that pupils and their families are reassured our schools are safe, consistent learning environments for our young people and for those who work there.”
