He continued: "We will have faith in the Holy Spirit and hope that the next Pope is as good as the rest."
The NASUWT teaching union carried out a survey in which 500 of its members responded to questions about behaviour in schools over the last 12 months.About 80% said they had experienced verbal abuse, and a similar number thought violent and abusive behaviour had increased.
Individual teachers said they had been assaulted, bitten, spat on, had fireworks thrown at them and had their cars vandalised.Several said they, like Mark, had wrongly been accused of being paedophiles by pupils.About 45% of the teachers said they had considered leaving teaching in the past 12 months and 63% had experienced stress.
Last summer, the Scottish government published a national action plan on behaviour in schools amid rising concerns about violence in schools.But the union says most councils have not even discussed the action plan with teachers.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said the survey told "a concerning story of the nature of behaviour in Scottish schools, particularly post-pandemic".
She told BBC Scotland News: "The issues that give me great concern are around the number of schools without behavioural management policies in place.A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “Naturally occurring groundwater can enter sewers, often from private pipes and in dry weather, which can cause overflows to operate for days or even months.
“We agree overflows are outdated so we’re investing £3 million a month to help reduce how often they automatically operate.”A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “In areas with high levels of residual groundwater, spills can happen outside of periods of rainfall. Without these releases – made up almost entirely of groundwater – homes and communities would be flooded.
“Combatting these groundwater spills is a key part of our £1.5 billion Clean Rivers and Seas Plan, which is designed to drastically reduce all storm overflows across our region by 2030.”Water and sewerage companies are responsible for outlets known as combined sewer overflows (CSOs), which release sewage from treatment works or the sewage network into the UK's waterways.