`We feel we are holding a thin line between order and chaos," says one Dublin teacher. "I teach a remedial class and I'm subject to a constant barrage of criticism of my teaching. They'll say things like `you're getting very bitchy these days, teacher', or `you've no right to talk to me like that'.

"Or they'll turn up late and say `Jaysus, it's you again' or `I can't handle you today', and I'm feeling, oh, my God, how am I going to cope?"

In some schools the use of the "F" word is regarded as normal by students. Understandably, some teachers find this hard to take. "They'll say `you're wrecking my fucking head', if you ask them to read something."

This teacher works part-time. "I come out like a wet rag," she says. "I don't understand how people working full-time cope."

"There's one girl in my class who is constantly disruptive," comments another teacher. "She's totally unco-operative and does what she likes. If you ask her to pay attention, she'll say `can't you see I'm talking?' or `teachers are crap'."

A Teachers Union of Ireland branch representative who is dealing with the Waterford case, which is under Garda investigation, cites another case in his own school. It involved a parent barging into the staff-room, verbally abusing a teacher and threatening to attack him. The parent had to be physically restrained. "It was pretty severe verbal abuse," he says. Another case recently reported to the TUI involved a student throwing acid onto a teacher's car.

Talk to teachers and they'll tell you about colleagues who have been hit by bottles and other missiles thrown by students, or who have been pushed about and shouted at by angry parents.

In one incident a teacher fell down an uncovered manhole which had been camouflaged by students. Another teacher was pointed out in the school yard by a pupil and then verbally attacked and pushed to the ground by a parent and her friend.

It is clear from what teachers say that there are many youngsters for whom the current school system is useless. Some regularly turn up to school with hangovers; others, teachers suspect, are taking drugs. In some schools when youngsters are found smoking pot, no action is taken. "You can't call in the Garda for everything," says a teacher. In some instances teachers are warned when children are changing schools to take care in their handling of a particular pupil. Why? The child is the son or daughter of a drug pusher or other criminal, and reprisals are feared if disciplinary action has to be taken against the youngster.

The Waterford case shocked many teachers because it represents every teacher's worst nightmare: being attacked in full view of the class while teaching. Apart from the physical injury, the shock to the nervous system and sense of humiliation are very damaging.

Clinical psychologist Dr Tony Humphreys says teachers have a basic right to feel physically and emotionally safe in the classroom. When these rights are infringed and they receive little support from the school, they can become considerably disempowered in their role. "Teachers' rights are not safeguarded in schools," he says. "Teachers are emotionally under siege. In many schools they spend 90 per cent of their time maintaining control and now they are becoming physically and even sexually at risk. Unless we develop systems which safeguard and value the rights of all members of the school, we will continue to have serious problems.

"There's a lot of lip service paid to discipline but no action. Discipline is a complex issue. Children are bringing their emotional baggage into school but each school should have a system that ensures that the teachers are not at risk."

Teachers are often unwilling to come forward to report or talk about these individual attacks because of embarrassment, a TUI representative said. "There is a stigma there. They are afraid people might think they have done something to provoke the attack. They are also afraid that it could reflect badly on their own ability to maintain discipline in the classroom."

Such is the level of distress attached to these cases, that one teacher, speaking on behalf of his TUI branch, did not want to be named in case his area could be identified. "In the eyes of the public it could turn parents away from allowing their children to be students at the school," he explains.

"The great fear of such attacks in any school is that they would encourage further outbreaks. Teachers are shaken and angry. They feel they are unprotected. There is no mechanism to deal with it. There's a fairly free and easy attitude in school."

The teachers' unions say up to 20 instances of serious physical assaults on teachers occur every year. This, though, is the tip of the iceberg. Many incidents go unreported since schools are anxious to hush them up, teachers say. Often the rest of the staff remain uninformed about such occurrences and offending students may go unpunished. Alice Prendergast, president of the TUI, says that discipline has "completely disimproved and bullying of teachers is more and more prevalent. Teachers are being knocked down by students, threatened with violence and their property vandalised," she says. "Women teachers are particularly at risk."

She is confident that the situation could improve if there was a directive from the Department of Education and Science to all schools to produce their own code of discipline, as recommended in the union's discipline policy document submitted last year to the department.

John White, assistant general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, says "We need a mechanism for handling the small number of disruptive pupils." He is concerned that some boards of management fail to take attacks on teachers seriously and expect teachers to carry on regardless. "It's simply unacceptable," he says.

In some instances the layout of the school facilitates aggression against teachers. In the case in which the teacher's nose was broken, the aggressor was able to walk directly into the classroom. "We can't have a culture in which strangers can wander about schools at will," Mr White says.

A school principal agrees. "Allowing people to walk directly into classrooms was fine in a society where there was consensus on what children should be taught and how they should behave. But in today's society, where there are winners and losers and a lot of angry people about, teachers are no longer safe in the classroom."

The ASTI has suggested that the circular on Assaults on Teachers from the Department of Education and Science should include a requirement that all school visitors to schools announce their presence. "Access to play and classroom areas must be restricted," says the principal. "All schools must have secure reception areas."

There are some signs however, that schools are beginning to gear up. A number of schools have installed security cameras and fences and some now have secure car parking areas for teachers.

Schools have to be increasingly security conscious, says the ASTI in its submission to the National Crime Forum this year. There should be restricted entry, close circuit cameras and security on call outside of school hours, it says.

"Secure fencing around perimeter areas [of a school] is now a necessity. More liaison between schools and the local gardai is required if the school environs are to be safe and secure," it states.