PARENTS who attack teachers in schools will be prosecuted, Education Secretary Estelle Morris warned today.

She said that teachers had to be protected from arguments in the classroom which lead to violence.

Speaking before she joined Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Downing Street summit on behaviour in schools, she said: "Some parents seem to imply that at some point it might be acceptable for words to boil over into aggressive action. We have to get over the message that that is never acceptable.

"Parents and pupils who assault teachers will be prosecuted.

"In most of our schools there is very good behaviour.

"But if we don't stop the bad behaviour now - and OFSTED have told us that behaviour has got slightly worse in the past two years - we could find ourselves on a slippery slope."

The government is launching a poster campaign in schools against bad behaviour after the Association of Teachers and Lecturers called for a crackdown.

Mr Blair was meeting head teachers today in the second of a series of "summits" being held by the government as ministers search for ways of reducing violence in schools.