A number of examples of severely threatening student behaviour were given at the launch of the report.
In a school in the south east, one student told a science teacher who had reprimanded her: "I know where you live, I'll get you later". This pupil was persistently aggressive towards pupils and teachers in the school and came from a "dysfunctional family background".
The teacher said staff were so concerned about the rights of pupils that they found it difficult to react when their own rights and the rights of other pupils were infringed. The school management did not want to make "an issue of the incident", with the result that the teacher felt unsupported and took a number of days of sick leave. Hundreds of pupils were without their science teacher and staff morale plummeted.
Another example was that of second-year student in Dublin who was brought out of class by a teacher when he was so disruptive no work could be done.
The student deliberately hit his own forehead off the wall and skinned his knuckles, then accused the teacher of assault and threatened to report him. When the class pupils stated that there was no assault, the student dropped the allegations.
In a school in the south west, a student who had been dodging classes and setting off the fire alarm was found wandering the corridor by a member of staff. He became aggressive and told her: "If I had my way it's a bullet in the head you'd get."
In the midlands, a Leaving Certificate student who was being questioned about homework by a teacher made the shape of a gun with his hand, pulled the trigger and created the sound effect of a gunshot, saying: "That's what you need."