TEACHERS yesterday demanded greater protection from violent parents amid claims of increasing levels of harassment in school grounds.

They also threatened to strike if they were denied the right to exclude disruptive pupils from classrooms.

The Government is currently looking at alternatives to exclusion in a bid to keep as many pupils as possible within mainstream education.

Strategies being considered by some local authorities include giving problem teenagers lessons in citizenship and personal and social development.

Others aim to employ specialist teachers, educational psychologists and social workers to produce personalised learning programmes for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

However, members of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers backed a move to retain the option of exclusion where necessary.

Delegates at its annual Scottish conference in Seamill were told the majority of pupils were often disadvantaged by the behaviour of one or two disruptives.

They also heard of a growing number of cases where teachers are the victims of bullying by parents. Estimates put the number of violent incidents involving teachers in Scotland's schools as high as 200 a day. Many more go unreported.

Last summer Scottish Education Minister Brian Wilson launched a national scheme to monitor the number of violent attacks on teachers.

The union's Scottish executive agreed to write to all local authorities urging them to set-up an anti-bullying and harassment policy.

NAS/UWT national executive member Tino Ferri said angry parents routinely went into schools and subjected teachers to verbal abuse in front of pupils. He added that disruptive pupils often came from homes where parents were more likely to make complaints.

He said: ''They think teachers will perform miracles. Some children are not coming to school socialised and they should be. Parents are expecting teachers to build the foundations and then fill them.

''Too many children are coming to schools and they simply don't know how to listen. At home they are used to getting an instant reaction to their demands from parents. Parents have abdicated their responsibilities.

''It's not just children from deprived backgrounds. It's happening in areas where kids have money thrown at them. They come to school with expensive trainers and designer labels.''

Pat O'Donnell, a teacher from South Lanarkshire, said: ''We lived in a world where if a teacher or an adult told you to do something, you did it. Children now think that it's not really an instruction, it's a suggestion.''