AS A now-retired teacher, I would like to endorse the stand taken by Chris Bridge and the fine staff at Huntington School (Tell Or We Will Not Teach You, January 19).

This type of callous and unprovoked assault must be confronted and those responsible punished - not only by the law, but by hearing loud and clear the collective anger and moral outrage of all fair-minded people.

The auxiliary staff at all schools do vital support work to keep the wheels of education turning. Many of these good people are the "unsung heroes" of the educational system and they must not be allowed to live in fear for their safety.

Likewise, good teachers are hard to come by. They are expensive to train and they are difficult to keep, especially in a culture of disrespect and political interference from those with no first-hand experience of the classroom.

Never has comprehensive education and all those who deliver it, from caretakers to head teachers, been more in need of our loudest support and respect.

Yet we also need to exercise a note of caution. The last thing we need are meaningless catchphrases and empty rhetoric from the "flog 'em and hang 'em" brigade.

If we plant good seeds in good soil, they grow strong and firm; this should be happening to all of our young people - even those who inflicted this terrible assault.

Somewhere along the road we are failing... we are failing as parents, we are failing our kids and we are failing to hold our Government to account.

In the face of such mindless hostility we need to ask ourselves some deep and painful questions about how, as a society, we manage to produce such damaged, dangerous and dysfunctional kids.

Kevin Riley,

Primrose Cottages,

Bondgate, Selby.

Updated: 11:18 Monday, January 23, 2006