The support for the assertion of the 11-year-old's mother and father comes from the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev Graham Dow, in an open letter to his diocese in which he relates how, in discussing education, he angered a woman who was an atheist.

Bishop Dow, in the letter in the October issue of his diocesan news, declares: "Respect for teachers is not as it should be. Some parents even collude with their difficult children rather than support the school head and teachers.

"The Government has highlighted respect as a key issue which our society faces in the hope that this will bring about change. But respect will not come just by talking about it."

The bishop discloses: "I was in discussion recently about these issues with someone who declared herself to be an atheist. Her answer to the problem was education. Proper education, she insisted, will direct people in right paths. "When I said to her that she was ignoring the Christian history from which our values have come, I could see her anger was beginning to rise. Many people think like her - that better education will solve the problems."

But that ignored the fundamental Christian truth that we are by nature sinful and need to be changed - on the inside, says Bishop Dow.

And to ignore the Christian faith is to ignore the way to inner change. The bishop goes on: "People do not like to hear that so much of what we cherish in our society has come with our Christian history and that by ignoring Christian faith we are undermining the very values we want to keep."

He adds: "All of us will be appalled by the recent rise of gun crime leading to tragedies like the death of Rhys Jones. His parents rightly saw a failure of parenting in relation to the youth who killed their son.

"Parenting is an issue right across the country. Better parenting is needed. The problem of respect is just as applicable in families as in schools."