TEACHERS are set to join police officers on the streets as part of a bid to crack down on teenage nuisance in Burnley and Pendle.

Officers want teachers to join them on night-time patrol so they can identify juvenile troublemakers and help bring them to book.

The move comes as police go into schools in Burnley to try and teach the meaning of respect to youngsters.

Children as young as nine will be targeted by police officers who want to ram home Prime Minister Tony Blair's key message of bringing back respect for authority.

But the move has caused concern for union leaders who fear the project will "further burden" teachers and could damage their relationships with pupils.

Secretary of Burnley NUT, Ken Pearson said: "I can see the thinking behind the project but teachers will be busy marking and planning in the summer and this will further burden them.

"Also if a pupil sees his teacher with the police this could have a negative impact on how they treat them when back in the classroom."

Mr Blair has pledged to create a "culture of respect" as he put moves to tackle crime and disorder at the heart of his government's third term agenda.

Asking teachers to join them on the streets is part of the police's Operation Summer Nights which aims to tackle and prevent anti-social behaviour during June, July, and August.

Sgt Martin Selway, Burnley police's neighbourhood policing co-ordinator, said: "The majority of problems we have in terms of anti-social behaviour relate to young people so we are approaching a number of high schools asking them if there are any staff who would be willing to come out with us on patrol.

"Hopefully teachers will be able to help identify some of the children who may be causing problems but who run off and they may also be able to help address some of the feeling of anonymity the children get by being part of a crowd. We are hoping some of these children will get a real shock when they see one of their teachers turning up.

"We want to try and hammer home the message that anti-social behaviour is just not acceptable and we are hoping schools will come on board and help us with that message."

Officers are also heading for the classroom in the near future as they aim to teach youngsters the meaning of respect.

Police Community Support Officer for Cliviger, Worsthorne and Briercliffe and Dave Johnson will be going into Briercliffe and Cliviger schools later this month to give lessons to children from years five and six on the idea of respect.

He said: "I wanted to try and grab the children at a young age and just before they go on to secondary school to talk to them about my three Rs, which are respect, reliability and responsibility and the idea is to try and teach them that as they grow up they become more responsible for their own behaviour. I talk to them about what we expect from them and what they can expect from us and the idea is that they go away knowing we will come down on them hard if they cross the line."

Police are hoping to be joined by teachers for the first patrol on Friday .