Student-on-staff school violence: A dirty little secret?

Some Ontario school boards have begun to issue protective gear to teachers and educational assistants — jackets with light Kevlar inserts that also include leg and arm guards. Even face shields.

A survey carried out by the union representing Ontario elementary teachers says 70 per cent of respondents report having experienced violent incidents in the workplace.

In Hamilton public schools, student attacks that did not result in reportable injury were up 10 per cent over the previous year. That represents 2,806 incidents. Across all categories, attacks were up from last year with 42 requiring time off from work, compared to 19 in the previous year. It’s time for a solution.

Educational assistants, at the bottom end of the classroom staff wage scale, were most often victims in the lost-time incidents. And most of those violent incidents were at Hamilton elementary schools.

What’s going on? Student-on-staff violence isn’t new and the issue has received considerable public attention in the last few years. There is broad recognition that the problem is getting bigger. But in spite of the attention and growing awareness, there are school boards in the province that deny the problem is getting worse. And others that are not in denial, including in Hamilton, are having little or no luck at reducing or eliminating the problem.

So again, we ask, what’s going on? We expect frontline emergency workers — police, firefighters and EMS workers, for example — will be exposed to a considerable risk of violence just by the nature of their jobs. But when did working in a classroom become a job that demands Kevlar and danger pay?

This hasn’t always been the case. What’s driving the increase?

Expert observers cite several factors. Increased class size is one, which coupled with inadequate classroom resources is an obvious recipe for increased risk. Also, the number of students requiring extra support and supervision, often due to emotional or physical challenges, is often noted. Then there’s the general decline in civility across society. It would be naive to think that would not be reflected in student behaviour, especially in a collective setting such as classrooms.

And yet there doesn’t appear to be a strong prescription. How can this problem be quantified across the education system and what measures are required to address it?

Education workers should not have to wear protective gear to work. Like any other workers, they have the right to expect their employer to take all reasonable measures to reduce or eliminate risk on the job. It seems obvious that isn’t happening in all cases, in part because there isn’t a systemic approach and recognition of the scale of the problem.

But this isn’t entirely about education staff, either. If classrooms are as volatile as the evidence suggests, what does that say about the quality of the learning environment? That goes equally for the students who are acting out and causing the harm directly and those who aren’t part of the problem but still have to live within the same toxic environment.

This is a real problem. The evidence is clear it’s getting worse. It’s time school boards and the province recognized that and made solving it a priority.

Education workers should not have to wear protective gear to work. Like any other workers, they have the right to expect their employer to take all reasonable measures to reduce or eliminate risk on the job.