Teachers strike back against game rage
By Bruce McDougall
November 11, 2004

SCHOOL teachers are receiving special training to combat student rage attributed partly to ultra-violent electronic games.

Teachers have complained increasingly realistic violent computer games are attracting susceptible students to engage in "dark side" behaviour.

More teachers are attending special courses in how to deal with the rise in classroom rage, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

Teacher Ros Jaeger said games like Counter-Strike were influencing students in the way they thought and reacted to situations.

"I have taught in many schools and it is obvious some children are attracted to this dark side," she said.

"The way they speak, their reactions to a simple request, their violent outbursts, their threats to fellow students and teachers are evidence of this.

"Teachers in special education [behaviour] are now having to do courses in how to deal with this increase in rage.

"More children are being diagnosed than every before. We are now confronted daily with anarchy.

"These computer games only make our job more difficult."

Public Schools Principals' Forum spokesman Brian Chudleigh said yesterday he believed violent computer games and movies had had " an accumulative impact on society".

"There is a sense a lot of kids are far quicker to resort to a range of violent behaviours than perhaps they were formerly," he said.

Child behavioural expert Professor Matt Sanders said exposure to violent games could act as a catalyst and trigger some children's behaviour.

But Professor Sanders said computer games affected only particular types of children and even then other [negative] factors were likely to be present.

"Generally no single thing is sufficient to explain the development of this sort of problem," he said.

More than 40 specially trained staff work across schools to provide tuition in managing aggressive behaviour.

They instruct teachers on the best way to intervene and calm students who become aggressive.

The Daily Telegraph