The Union of Professional Educators has proposed the introduction of hand-held security scanners to prevent students from hiding “threatening items.”

The union expressed its worry that “unorthodox behaviour” is becoming prevalent in schools, resulting in children being exposed to a higher level of bullying at a very young age, it said.

The UPE was reacting to a recent incident where a girl chased another student with a butter knife taken from the school kitchen. An investigation was launched by education authorities into the incident at the Naxxar middle school.

The union said that such situations have become commonplace at school and is leaving an extra workload for psychosocial teams.

It proposed “hard-line measures” to reduce the possibility of students concealing any threatening items.

The UPE also said that according to statistics, knives is the most common material confiscated from students’ school bags, more so than mobile phones.

“Every effort must be made to prevent the possibility of a serious accident, or even worse, the loss of students and/or educators,” the UPE said.

The UPE said that its proposal is in contrast to the one made by the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), who suggested punishment for the students in question.