beating of a teacher at Warwick Secondary School and top security would have been put in place very quickly.

It is obvious to everyone that teachers have a right to be protected from violent students and that non-disruptive students have a right to be taught in an atmosphere where they can learn.

Yesterday's demonstration by teachers in the pouring rain at Warwick Secondary School was an impressive show of strength and unity. It was very clear that teachers mean business. Their decision to demonstrate seems to have taken the Ministry of Education by surprise. It is truly amazing how quickly the former teachers now in the Ministry drift away from those still in the classroom.

It is difficult to approve of teachers taking part in a demonstration at very short notice to parents, and leaving their students in the lurch. However it is equally difficult to believe that care and attention on the part of the Ministry would not have prevented the teachers' action. We see the action as rooted in deep teacher frustration.

Yet Minister of Education Jerome Dill had already communicated to the union his willingness to meet the Bermuda Union of Teachers executive at any time and had arrangements to meet teachers from the proposed Middle Schools and the two senior secondary schools at hear their concerns.

The Minister was not ignoring the problem but teachers were so frustrated they felt they had no more time to waste.

It is ironic that teacher action comes at a time when Government is spending untold millions on new school facilities and totally restructuring the education system. The schools where violence has been most prevalent will no longer be secondary schools under the new system.

We must wonder if the turmoil of restructuring is playing a part in current problems in the schools. It may also be that some of those involved in teacher action have an anti-Government political agenda especially since this demonstration comes so close on the heels of the Bermuda Industrial Union wildcat strike. Perhaps the teachers simply learned from the BIU wildcat strike that if you demonstrate you can get what you want.

There are often underlying causes of this sort of action but the fact remains that violence in schools is a serious problem which seems to be increasing.

The sad thing is that all the violent students will soon be in one place, Cedarbridge, and then what happens?