What Eric Spear, president of the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), wants or does not want is irrelevant. Because of a divorce, my children now live and go to school in Brighton and I expect their safety should be the first priority of any school.

There is nothing but shame in the police's cowardly lack of response to Varndean School's plea for protection from a man with a knife.

Mr Spear also shows old-fashioned narrow-mindedness and paranoia by citing the US as an example not to follow. The bottom line is if the police cannot guarantee to be there when events demand their immediate response, who will?

The headmistress at Varndean deserves everyone's respect and admiration for having her priorities right, regardless of future police harassment she may have to endure and any battle with the NAHT, which does not want

to face its responsibility to acknowledge things are not, in our time, the way they used to be. Yes, Mr Spear, you might have to spend some money for the safety of your schools, as the US will tell you.

-Roger Poulain, PO BOX 658, Destrehan, LA 70047, US