Issue 1: abusive students are not removed from class

Definition: I don't mean 'student who talks too much', I mean 'abuses teacher'.

As bizarre as it was for me, when I heard this, it's true. Back home, everybody in class knew how much they could push their luck in a classroom. It took a rare idiot to cross the line and piss off the teacher. Of course, we had one chain-smoking teacher who got pissed off at everything, but he was a waste of space.
Back in the UK, having had a not-so-distant history of abusing students in many ways, let's say up to the '70's, now the system is all kid-gloves with the students. They can't bring themselves to ruin the educational experience of even one child. Unfortunately, that one child can ruin lessons for everybody else. The craziness of the rules came to the point that, last I heard, students who physically assaulted a teacher, let alone verbally, could not be removed from class, not permanently, not for the day, not even for the lesson in which the student hits his teacher!
Can you imagine the belittling of a teacher by students. Of course, that invites other students to do the same. In the end, those kids who abuse will try to impose themselves everywhere in the adult world, and often land themselves in jail. That's why schools are strict. Kids need it. Kids will respect control if it is fair (ask any psychologist). Kids, somewhere inside their noggins, know that they are ever-so-slightly out of control and need a leash.
Well, that doesn't exist in the UK schools. One easy conclusion to draw from this is that the government is seeking to deep-six the state system so that parents will borrow the money to send their kids to private education. As a result, many are doing so, and others have located the best-performing state schools and lie, cheat and steal to get their kids in. Chaos, ever summer!
Anyway, let's not lose sight of the teacher in all this. Many of them go nuts, under this system. The one class I observed some years ago, had a teacher who visibly shook during class, and spent her breaks smoking. Nothing else, but smoking.

Recent case:
One teacher basically flipped out, after the students (they admitted it in court) had been driving him nuts. Teacher took a dumbell (always good to have one in class) to a kid's head causing serious, but not life-threatening injuries. He escaped jail, but lost his job. He's probably a wreck anyway, and has to deal with his PTSD.
Here's a letter to the Metro newspaper from a couple of months ago, after the judgement. Try to read into it the implication of the hell that is the classroom for many teachers, because of the rule-makers ignorance:

Beating a child senseless cannot be right. But no doubt the circumstances that drove him to it were probably not right either. Peter Harvey has probably expressed the feelings of thousands of teachers- they are human too. I have a number of friends and family who are teachers and they have similar feelings. Who is going to crack next? Are the authorities now going to take notice? AG , Surrey

-Cosmik67

Intro. Teach the students how to survive

Welcome to my new blog on issues around education. As you can see, I have other blogs, and my 'Now, testify' blog has included education stories, from a political angle.
I believe that, whether intentionally or not, education has been made a political football and every politician has decided to give it a kick or two. This is especially true due to the financial crisis.
So, I think it deserves a closer look, as policy and pedagogy.
I've decided that this is a critical time in British, if not world education.
I'm involved in university education, but my interests spread to other levels as well.
I'm most concerned with tendencies which are denying a proper education
to lots of children over here.
It mostly has to do with politics, but I will critique this stuff
from an educational perspective, because most of it is
sizzle without the steak.
It's about master strokes, and making of somebody's place in history.
Ya, like Machiavelli, and about as bloody.
I'm not of one political party or -ism, but some things are
either right or they aren't.
Some of the awful things proposed do have some positive aspects,
but you have to look hard to find them. So, I will.
Enjoy. I'd like to read your comments as well.

-Cosmik67